there is only - there is only (Self Release)

Lucas Gonze is restless and a bit of a tripper, I like him. Inspirations come from the folk music played in the family home, jazz, punk, avant-classical, shoegaze, audio animatronics, music concrete and field recordings. He's analogue, he's tech curious and capable, he's been East Coast, he went West Coast and now he's back in rural New York. He's also just released a great album.

There is only one starts life as an electronic transmission from a different galaxy, the synthesized tones transmitting some sort of alien morse code, luckily Gonze was awake and responded with effected strings that communicate surprisingly well with the technoid alphabet, although it's not long before the transmission mysteriously stops to make way for his contemplative acoustic picking that ponders the meaning of what just happened and fittingly defies easy genre categorisation.

Next up is the remix of the LP finale, "For My Wife After We had a Fight On Our Anniversary", the regretful, primitive guitar making way for some kosmische synths, Eastern drones and hand played percussion that takes the guitar to far flung temples and their gods who are only reached via psychedelic rituals, strap yourself in as it's a hell of a journey. Once back on earth the electric blues of "I'm Under a Lot of Stress Recently" revisits the classic sounds of last century, albeit with a lysergic tickle and some ambient assistance half way through.

Next up is the LP's title track which is a closely miked, intimately recorded, acoustic affair that beckons you closer and showcases Gonze's gentler, more introspective side and guitar chops. Just as you think he might be laying his hat in more folky terrain he's off on an electroacoustic, voyage full of precision placed and played micro-sounds that gives folktronica a cosmic Americana injection, but it's not long before you're snapped out of your astral projection by an idling Harley that also spurs our feathered friends into action before going on its way to reveal Gonze serenading his surroundings with some decidedly out there guitar work which tries it best not to sound like a guitar and pretty much succeeds. To round things off we're treated to the original version of, "For My Wife After We had a Fight On Our Anniversary" that gets back to American primitive basics and pours out the regret and anguish of that celebration turned altercation.

The album is a trip and a half, and sounds like lots of things and not a lot else at the same time. I'm now following this singular artist with interest.

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Playlist Companion

Find Gonze in the Slow Folk Playlist: