{"title":"Chris Forsyth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChris Forsyth is a highly acclaimed guitarist and composer known for his unique blend of rock, folk, and experimental music. With a career spanning over two decades, Forsyth has established himself as a prominent figure in the contemporary music scene.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eInfluenced by artists such as *Steve Gunn*, *Bill Orcutt*, and *William Tyler*, Forsyth's music showcases his virtuosic guitar skills and innovative approach to composition. His performances are characterized by intricate melodies, hypnotic rhythms, and mesmerizing improvisations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eForsyth has collaborated with various musicians including the *Gunn - Truscinski Duo* and *Sunburned Hand Of The Man*. He has also released several solo albums that have received critical acclaim for their originality and artistic vision.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"solar-motel-expanded-20th-anniversary-edition","title":"Solar Motel - Expanded 20th Anniversary Edition","description":"\u003cp\u003eExpanded 2xLP 20th Anniversary Edition includes two studio outtakes from the original sessions, and a side- long live session recorded at WFMU by the then brand- new Solar Motel Band.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver the last two decades Philadelphia-based guitarist Chris Forsyth has released over a dozen critically lauded albums that have established him as one of today's most unique and acclaimed guitar player \/ composers - a forward-thinking classicist synthesizing cinematic expansiveness with a pithy lyricism and rhythmic directness that makes even his 20-minute workouts feel as clear, direct, and memorable as a 4-minute song.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNamed after a run-down lodge in New Jersey near where he grew up, \u003ci\u003eSolar Motel\u003c\/i\u003e was the first full-band project from Chris Forsyth. Originally released in 2013, it was considered his most ambitious and sublime work of Cosmic Americana to date, and the idea of the Motel also figured into a band where vacancies would open and close.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn his words: \"'Solar Motel' is the first record on which I overtly took rock tropes and twisted them into new shapes, incorporating so many of my interests and influences - the twin-guitar elegance of Television, the sprawl of West Coast psych, the boiled down Rock Minimalism of Rhys Chatham, the abstract tangles of free improv, an undercurrent of ecstatic jazz energy, and the studio textures of Eno\/Cale\/Roxy ‘70s art rock. To the few who’d been paying attention to my musical output to that point, I think the whole package came as a surprise. Certainly there was little in my discography to indicate that anything like this was waiting to bust out. 'Solar Motel' basically set the template for much of what I did for the remainder of that decade. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  In preparing the reissue, I sat down to listen to it for the first time in several years and was struck by how much of what I did in the wake of 'Solar Motel' was somehow a reaction to or an attempt to tease out various elements of that record. I was also surprised to discover two more songs, 'Long Warm Afternoon' and 'Harmonious Dance,' completed during the 'Solar Motel' sessions that I’d completely forgotten recording, not to mention overdubbing and mixing them. These tracks’ existence reminds me how in flux things were at the time. 'Solar Motel' was conceived very much in the process of its making.\"   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA lot of creative energy was expended in that two-day session between the studio musicians and a lot of creative decisions made in the subsequent post-production sessions when the pieces were stitched together into a whole. Then, just when it was done, a new group took the record’s name and immediately reinvented the music in its own image for the stage. In addition to the two studio outtakes from the original sessions, this reissue includes a side-long live session recorded at WFMU by the then brand-new Solar Motel Band, showcasing the flexibility of the musicians and the material. This kind of dynamic is essentially what Chris is always shooting for - to build on real roots but also keep evolving them, to trust that something new - or at least different - is always possible, to put faith in the music and the players above all other considerations. Ultimately, the kind of in-flux optimism within that process of transformation embodied by “Solar Motel” is really what the music - what everything - in this ongoing project is all about.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Algorithm Free","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50396225339723,"sku":"2166325","price":32.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Solar_Motel_f31674dd_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726479826"},{"product_id":"evolution-here-we-come","title":"Evolution Here We Come","description":"\u003cp\u003eTo wit, if you think you know already what you’ll be getting into here heady, Television-esque multi-guitar jams played with motorik precision and a fiercely American intensity: you know, a Forsyth record well, go ahead and think that. I won’t stop you. Only . . . maybe the pulsing bass, curiously lurching drumbeat, and lunar synth squiggling of Sun Ra Arkestra maestro Marshall Allen that opens “Experimental and Professional” will set you back on your heels. But just for a moment, before Ryan Jewell’s drums and Tortoise alum Douglas McCombs’s bass twine into perfect alignment and then guitars played by Forsyth and Tom Malach (of Garcia Peoples) start chipping and hammering, twittering and sparring, the whole thing managing to evoke Remain in Light without sounding remotely like it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Quarter","offers":[{"title":"LP | x2","offer_id":50415153676619,"sku":"1160879","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50415152398667,"sku":"1160878","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/67e7cf43-a041-4df6-af1c-5d37e0f3d89f_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726687909"},{"product_id":"all-time-present","title":"All Time Present","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe annals of music history are overflowing with gifted guitar players whose egos prevented them from reaching their full potential: rather than being content to be exceptional members of a band, they instead create unexceptional records as leaders in vain attempts to prove their worth as solo artists. Guitarist-songwriter-bandleader Chris Forsyth is the rare exception that proves the rule. Rightfully but somewhat reductively known as a guitar player par excellence, one listen to Forsyth's latest double album, All Time Present, reveals that while his dazzling musicianship can always be taken for granted, it's hardly the whole story. Forsyth's albums-presented with his Solar Motel Band or nominally solo, as here-have always been evidence of a musical mind brimming with ideas. Forsyth is joined on \u003ci\u003eAll Time Present \u003c\/i\u003eby bassist Peter Kerlin and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Edward Hansen, both longtime foils; new to the group is Ryan Jewell, a sublimely talented drummer whose musicality is seemingly bottomless. With this group, Forsyth is at the peak of his powers. All Time Present is the rare double album that goes by in a flash. Indeed, one of Forsyth's greatest strengths as a composer and bandleader is his consistent ability to sustain interest even when at his most brazenly improvisational: he drifts, but he never meanders. On \u003ci\u003eAll Time Present\u003c\/i\u003e, Forsyth's particular drift is like that of a proverbial wallflower with a sudden surge of unselfconscious courage toward the dance floor.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Quarter","offers":[{"title":"LP | x2","offer_id":50498269643083,"sku":"1058994","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50498269741387,"sku":"1058993","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/585fcba1-e29b-4852-ba9c-30eb53617b72_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727743192"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_82ac7d29_thumbnail_4096_ab037d73-364f-4af7-8883-a61ed87b3fe2.jpg?v=1726479804","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/chris-forsyth.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}