Lilah Larson — Solo Guitar Improvisations (Ruination)
Solo Guitar Improvisations by Lilah Larson
Lilah Larson spent much of their musical life framing queer-centric perspectives in the raw, angular, rock clangor in the New York City-based Sons of an Illustrious Father. In addition, the guitarist has made one solo, song-based album called Pentimento, in 2016, and has collaborated with the Mozart in the Jungle actor Lola Kirke on a couple of discs. This latest album, a collection of improvised and atmospheric guitar pieces breaks with any obvious narrative, luxuriating instead in pure sonic vibration.
For each piece, Larson starts with a single, lucid idea, often no more than a few notes, and fleshes it out into a fuller statement. “i” for instance, (the pieces are all numbered, from one to ten, Roman-style), starts a trebly twitter of electric guitar notes, set, somewhat nervously, atop a whoosh of space rock effects. The bones of the piece are built a three-note cadence, two quick notes, and a longer one an octave up. Over this, Larson layers a downward sloping melody, longer tones, more meditative, pure and abstract but with the faintest, ghostliest echo of Americana or blues. The stateliness of this melody contrasts in an interesting way with the doppler wails of pedal effects, the past tipping a dusty black hat to the deep space future, in a droning, nodding meditation.
The long “x” (at over 14 minutes, the album’s most expansive track) lays a foundation of droning organ atmospherics, then lets open-ended guitar twang mark out time with subtly blues-inflected meditation. Larson sounds a bit like soundtrack Mark Knoffler here, slowed and freed from song structure.
“v” is the most overtly country of these pieces, with its long, looping bent notes, but once you’ve heard it, you can’t help but read traditional figures into other, more abstract compositions. “iii,” for instance, has the lyrical lilt of porch blues, though distilled and cleared of all impurities. “ii” sounds a bit like a Jack Rose psychedelic raga, but slower and without so many notes. “viii” is spiky and abrasive, almost punk in its sharp rhythmic attack. But they’re all relatively simple sounds. These are guitar tones pared to vibrating, resonating essence and allowed to bloom against velvety silence.
There are no words, either sung or spoken, anywhere on this album, and so no obvious message, whether political or personal. And yet, you can’t help but feel that Larson has expressed something foundational about themself, through the unhurried contemplation of the sounds that move them.
Some shots from last night. Ezra asked me to get this picture of them in this tiara. We got to talk and it was super chill and fun. We complimented each other’s outfits, talked movies, music and Ben Affleck. Then Oddkin performed and they were absolutely incredible, such a powerful intimate gig like no other
