Cole Berliner – The Black Door

Description

An essence of otherness in the form of Cole Berliner, breezingout a vibrant acoustic sequence of bucolic instrumentals,chasing an old-world sense of beauty, projecting equally into theear of listener and non-listener.

Having lived life as an atheist-spiritualist and progressive popcomposer / performer, Cole desired to find his own kind ofdevotional music, devoting himself to the cause that becamethis album. But it took more than that in the end.

The Black Door required playing in aspects of traditional genre formats like country, blues, finger-style, gospel, soundtrackand ambient and Cole is adept at them all, mixing andmatching modes and vibes. Adding to that a cosmic spray of fullcircle / circus leap consciousness, The Black Door flew open.

Initially conceived as solo acoustic guitar tunes, in the studio thesongs demanded the dynamics of an acoustic ensemble (adeparture from his work with Kamikaze Palm Tree and SharpieSmile). This was key. The arrangements form intricatepassages for acoustic, electric and lap steel guitars, acoustic /electric bass, piano, drums, percussion, violin, viola, horns,woodwinds and synthesizers. Playing with Cole are violinistLaena Myers, along with Garret Lang, Dylan Hadley, SofiaArreguin, Robert Earl Thomas, Michael Sachs, Sarah Safaie,Kilan Thorns and Cesar Hernandez plus Cesar Maria, whomixed and co-produced with Cole.

The music of The Black Door is honest modern folk – WestCoast folk – with a rad amount of odd psyche laced within. Apresence in the production eco-system of ominous (but friendly)ghost theatre, elegant framing for a perfectly civilized, surrealmystery and exquisite, acoustic folk-chamber puzzle.

Cole Berliners solo debut is rich-grained instrumental parlourmusic, organically growing on in the speakers and ears beyond,an album after our own hearts in the challenger tradition of BertJanschs Avocet, Marc Ribots Saints and Jim ORourkesBad Timing. As Cole brings a succession of new moods andqualities to the true spirit of the thing, The Black Door opens upan album-length sequence of musical transformation.

Tracklist:

The Black Door
A Western Sun
Poppies
Bongo Syndicate
Bugle Call
Country Tea
Window Leans Left
The Light
Cathedral
Death of Stars