Past Beginnings

“Kenny Werner learned to reconnect with music through meditation,” Glynn explains. “That was inspiring for me, so I started adding a musical practice to my meditation practice. I’d wake up, get centered, and improvise for as long as I could stay in a meditative state. When I started critiquing myself, the improvisation was over and I’d move on to something else.”

After compiling nearly 40 melodic ideas, Glynn began contacting friends from the NYC free-improv community and other musicians he had met in LA to contribute to the album. These include bassist and french horn player Rob Jost, who has previously performed with Björk, Imogen Heap, and the Saturday Night Live band. Drummer Matthew Mayhall is a regular collaborator with Tortoise guitarist Jeff Parker, while violinist Gillian Rivers has worked with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, John Cale, and Kim Gordon. “I love working with other artists,” says Glynn. “When I’m writing for all of these other voices, it frees me up a bit. I can say so much more, or at least say things differently than I could with just a guitar.”

Glynn describes the album as “an abstract creation story for a non-existent culture”, with his songs providing the soundtrack of Fourth World folk. Past Beginnings can also be used as a form of guided meditation with its musical passages arranged chronologically into a loose narrative structure. The sighing strings and jaunty accordion of “Eternal Horizon” drop the listener into an unknown location in medias res to scope out their surroundings. “Palisades” uses shimmering pedal steel and the clopping rhythms of the tabla to introduce a feeling of tension. Elsewhere, the soaring sax of “Reading The Sky” welcomes new possibilities, while the sprawling “Primal Drift” is a meditation on wandering with no destination in mind.

This narrative abstraction was quite intentional. Key inspirations include Sonny Sharrock's classic 1969 album Black Woman, with its heady fusion of folk songs and improvisation, as well as the performances Glynn regularly attended in New York from free music luminaries such as John Zorn and Marc Ribot. Past Beginnings is a cinematic chamber-folk journey bathed in soft light, composed as an instrumental album with the intention of creating a unique experience for each listener.

“Without lyrics, you can be transported to different places and create your own story,” Glynn concludes. “I love folk songs and artists like Elliott Smith, but it can be hard to escape the world that person is singing about because the lyrics are right there. With instrumental music, I feel like a co-creator in a way, even if just a passive one. When I’m listening I can travel to a whole other world, and I hope this album creates the same effect.”

Jesse Locke

Rob Jost - Bass, Fr Horn (tracks 3, 6), Fr Horn Arrangement (track 6) Robert DiPietro - Drums, Percussion (tracks 1, 3, 5) Gillian Rivers - Violin (track 1) Michael Bellar - Accordion (track 1), Pump Organ (track 3), Rhodes (track 5) Rohin Khemani - Percussion (tracks 2, 7) Bob Hoffnar - Pedal Steel (track 2) Josh Plotner - Bass Clarinet (track 3) Tony Barba - Tenor Saxophone, Flute (track 5) Ashley Jarmack - Alto Flute (track 7), Bansuri, Fula Flute, Fujara (track 5) Matthew Mayhall - Drums (track 6) Julianne Gralle - Trombone (track 7)

Bill Mims - Mix Engineer Alan Douches - Mastering Engineer