TAKE two of the best instrumental guitarists currently working in instrumental Americana, Marisa Anderson and William Tyler; put them together in a studo; press record. It’s a simple idea, but an idea as brilliant as the results.
In some ways it’s a surprise the two haven’t married their winding, mesmerising aesthetics before. In fact they first collaborated in the days following a Portland show commemorating the life of the late David Berman, of Purple Mountains and Silver Jews.
Marisa says: “There was an obvious and immediate affinity musically and personally which led to the feeling that we should try and do something together, but in January of 2020, both of us had pretty full schedules so it was more of a vague idea to do something, someday … then COVID hit.”
With those full schedules suddenly voided, isolation looming, a mounting need to create, they began swapping ideas; William then jouned Marisa for a week in Portland as wildfires raged alongside the daily citywide protests; and tapped a harmonic wellspring of interlacing guitars, balladeering, breezy rambles, a home for riffs that had always been orphaned.
And you can hear the title track of the album, the glorious, trilling, melodic conversation of “Lost Futures”, right here.
The album and thus the single take their name from British k-punk writer Mark Fisher’s cultural theory of the loss of potential futures, the hopes and ideals which once felt inevitable but have since been interrupted. “For every choice made, every path taken, there are multitudes of choices not made, paths not taken,” summates Marisa.
It looks lime being a good year fr those of us who love the instrumental guitar aesthetic, now dualled in conversation, what with Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles’ guitar and banjo conversation for Drag City, and Cameron Knowler and Eli Winter’s recent excellent album for American Dreams.
Marisa Anderson and William Tyler’s Lost Futures will be released by Thrill Jockey digitally, on CD, and on limited purple vinyl on August 27th; you can pre-order your copy now, from Marisa’s Bandcamp, here, or direct from the label, here.
Connect with Marisa Anderson on Facebook and Instagram; and with William Tyler on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
