Despite concerns about its vague scientific definition and a lack of hard research, coupled with an over-abundance of media hype as a potential cure-all, the meditative practice of mindfulness is a mental health play that won’t go away. Without over-analyzing the psychological process, mindfulness is particularly applicable to the enjoyment of music. What can be better than listening, free of distraction, to a performer so at ease with their instrument and environment that you become entirely swept up? Add in the seductive and startlingly beautiful visuals by an experimental director and you have a powerful meditative experience, whether you are mindful of it or not.
You should have no desire to engage your critical faculties when you are listening to the compositional guitar work of Andy Cartwright, who has been recording as Seabuckthorn for the past 10 years. Simply lock into the fragile, aural specter-shapes he conjures and savor the here and now before it disappears into the heavens. We are delighted to bring you the premiere of Seabuckthorn’s contemplative “Disentangled” and its panoramic Camille Degeye-shot video today.
“Disentangled” is taken from Cartwright’s ninth Seabuckthorn album A House with Too Much Fire and features the British-born, France-based musician splintering off into different directions and negotiating atmos-ridden guitar lines (and, this time around, banjo, clarinet, percussion, and synth lines too). Released à deux on June 1 by French labels Bookmaker Records (Paris) and La Cordillère (Marseille), and mastered by one of our favorite sound art masters, Lawrence English, A House with Too Much Fire features a combo of imaginative compositions and evolving minimalist vignettes that challenge temper and form. Just the thing with which to get mindlessly entangled.