Folsom Cave was conceived as two side-long pieces on an LP. This digital edition maintains this compositional intention.
The title and track names stem from this passage in Charles Olson’s Call Me Ishmael (1947):
I take SPACE to be the central fact to man born in America, from Folsom cave to now. I spell it large because it comes large here. Large, and without mercy.
It is geography at bottom, a hell of wide land from the beginning. That made the first American story (Parkman's): exploration.
Something else than a stretch of earth— seas on both sides, no barriers to contain as restless a thing as Western man was becoming in Columbus' day. That made Melville's story (part of it).
PLUS a harshness we still perpetuate, a sun like a tomahawk, small earthquakes but big tornadoes and hurrikans, a river north and south in the middle of the land running out the blood.
The fulcrum of America is the Plains, half sea half land, a high sun as metal and obdurate as the iron horizon, and a man's job to square the circle.
Some men ride on such space, others have to fasten themselves like a tent stake to survive. As I see it Poe dug in and Melville mounted. They are the alternatives.
Americans still fancy themselves such democrats. But their triumphs are of the machine. It is the only master of space the average person ever knows, oxwheel to piston, muscle to jet. It gives trajectory.
To Melville it was not the will to be free but the will to overwhelm nature that lies at the bottom of us as individuals and a people. Ahab is no democrat. Moby-Dick, antagonist, is only king of natural force, resource.
credits
released July 20, 2015
Instruments by Tom Lecky
Recorded by Peter Ward December 2011-January 2012. Additional recording and mixing January-March 2013
Long-form trance-y rhythmic jams, with a fun shambling edge, sounding like a cross between music from Africa's Sahel region crossed with a Tom Waits instrumental... Jascha Narveson
Tasmanian guitarist Julius Schwing embraces the visceral sounds of finger playing, incorporating them into his experimental guitar work. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 8, 2022
Trumpeter Russ Johnson & some of Chicago's top improvisers slink from contemplative to funky, difficult to swingin'. Bandcamp New & Notable May 6, 2014
Beautiful synth-keyoard driven jazz with a cerebral atmosphere that's natural and artistic, as well as simply comforting to one's soul even as it challenges you, the listener, to open your ears. Maybe even your eyes, too. I select Sunrise on Pruhina as my favorite track, but really, it's all about "Goldilocks". A fave of 2021!!! Matthew Flores