Minnesotan guitarist Steve Tibbets has been recording music since the late 1970s. He has recorded extensively but not exclusively on ECM since about 1980, exploring soundscapes on that quintessential “western” instrument the guitar, in conjunction with the music and instruments of other cultures. On Close he’s making music that fits right in with the burgeoning Ambient Country movement, improvising patiently constructed guitar melodies over organic percussion, layered with various loops and drones.
Tibbets plays either a 12 string acoustic, its double courses tuned in unison rather than octaves, or six string acoustic and electric guitars with the two lowest strings tuned down, and also contributes piano and some percussion. The rest of the percussion, gongs, handpan and loops are provided by longtime collaborator Marc Anderson, with JT Bates on drums.
The project bears some resemblance to New Age music, particularly as practiced by one of those credited with inspiring if not developing it, the late guitarist John Fahey. And a listener can treat it as such, though as mostly improvised music it’s much more precarious. I don’t really have the vocabulary to describe it coherently, but this is deeply meditative music, arranged as a suite or a song cycle, a series of related multi-part pieces with titles such as “We Begin,” “Away,” “Somewhere,” and “Anywhere.”
It’s not all sweetness and light, either. “Somewhere, Part 3” incorporates a distorted electric guitar and some rock-adjacent drumming, as do some of the other tracks. That one might be my favorite, evoking for me a memory of Neil Young’s gloriously weird soundtrack for the Wim Wenders film “Dead Man.” And the more strident bits of the extended “Everywhere, Part 4” would fit right in at a Marc Ribot Ceramic Dog session.
New Age, trance, World, ambient, tone poems … Steve Tibbetts’ Close slips and slides around and through any attempt at categorization or description or genre. But if you like any of those things or are just curious for something different, give it a try. He has a good website. Make sure you check out the section of Bad Reviews.
(ECM, 2025)
