Sometimes, on cloudless spring afternoons, Eric Chenaux likes to don medieval garb and amble along highway exits while strumming a lute and singing scandalous stories. Actually, that’s probably not true at all, but when you base an entire album on the tradition of balladry, what else are we supposed to think and then report to the public?
Chenaux might not wander around in tights, boots, and a funny hat, but he is releasing Guitar & Voice, his fourth album on Constellation. He distorts any expectations of ballads by blending such disparate influences as folk, jazz, baroque, noise, and pop, and whittling them down into his most minimal album yet, one that consists of little beyond his own playing and singing, drifting between bowed-guitar instrumentals and lyrical, vocally-based tunes. Unless some nasty highway robbers steal it, Guitar & Voice will see a March 6 release (luckily those tricksters haven’t snatched the video for the album’s opening track, “Amazing Backgrounds”).
Guitar & Voice tracklist:
01. Amazing Backgrounds
02. Simple/Frontal
03. Dull Lights (White or Grey)
04. Sliabh Aughty
05. Le Nouveau Favori
06. Put in Music
07. Genitalia Domestique
08. However Wildly We Dream
09. Glitzing for Stephen Parkinson
• Eric Chenaux: http://www.myspace.com/ericchenaux
• Constellation: http://cstrecords.com