Stream: John Vanderslice, ‘Spectral Dawn’

Zane Roessell on March 20th, 2019

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Deep in the remote wilderness of West Sonoma County, 90 minutes north of San Francisco, lies an 11-square-mile canyon, a sine wave that wends through some of the most unique geological phenomena — and the mind of John Vanderslice.

Vanderslice, producer, singer-songwriter, owner of Tiny Telephone studio and unequivocally the silent partner to some of the most important music of the past two decades (Spoon, Sleater-Kinney, Death Cab For Cutie, Bob Mould, Mountain Goats, tUnE-yArDs, Grandaddy, Into It. Over It., Samantha Crain, Teen Daze, Cherry Glazerr, Frog Eyes, Strand of Oaks), has announced his return with the release of his new album “The Cedars,” his first in six years. Inspired by the very same West Sonoma canyon that remains just visible from the top of Vanderslice’s own property, The Cedars inhabit a special place for the artist: “… It’s a land-locked geological anomaly that has over a dozen endemic trees and plants. It’s only six miles away, but it takes up a mythic space in my mind, like the perfect sound, the perfect lyric. A lot of this record was written on this land, under the spell of this place.”

“Spectral Dawn,” following his prior releases “I’ll Wait For You” and ‘Will Call” is his newest single and “a hymn to those who have disappeared into the ether: the lost loves, the obsessions, the dead.” Per Vanderslice, “They’ve slipped through a trap door and are not accessible anymore. The remaining fragments of experience and memory are comforting and damaging at the same time.” He sings in an almost didactic tone, mocking — or at the very least willfully unaccepting, atop a lush piano-driven production of drunken synthesizers, trilling with auditory flourishes. Though immediately accessible, his characteristic high timbre and arrangement unsettles with repeated listening.

Though “Spectral Dawn” concerns itself mostly with the intangibles of memory — more importantly, remembrance, Vanderslice’s own legacy has left and continues to leave an indelible mark upon the indie scene.

“The Cedars” (also on vinyl) is out April 5 via Native Cat Recordings.

||| Stream: “Spectral Dawn” and “I’ll Wait for You”