{"product_id":"blueblue","title":"blueblue","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eblueblue\u003c\/i\u003e is the latest full-length from multi-instrumentalist and all-around vibe wizard, Sam Gendel. The record, out via Leaving Records, is a concise, tightly wound song suite whose 14 tracks each correspond to a pattern within sashiko, a traditional style of Japanese embroidery. This conceit remains playfully ambiguous — to what extent, if at all, is Kagome (woven bamboo) meant to evoke the pattern of the same name, for example? But there is an intuitive sense, throughout \u003ci\u003eblueblue\u003c\/i\u003e, that Gendel has, in this instance, narrowed his focus. To say that \u003ci\u003eblueblue\u003c\/i\u003e feels richly textural might be a little on-the-nose, thematically, but alas…it does. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is an intimacy, a humility, and a strength at play here that typifies the work of a master craftsman. Only an artist could make it sound so effortless. A Los Angeleno by way of Central CA, Gendel is by now an institution. Across a dizzying slate of solo releases and collaborations, he has amassed a reputation for not only virtuosic musicianship (primarily as a saxophonist, though the songs that would become blueblue were all initially composed on guitar), but also for his mercurial and prolific output — a corpus of work, which, while obviously indebted to jazz and hip hop (and the farther flung, experimental corners of both) is, in a word, unpindownable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bulk of \u003ci\u003eblueblue\u003c\/i\u003e was recorded in isolation in a makeshift studio built in a cabin floating atop a tributary of Oregon’s Columbia River. Having sketched out a set of guitar melodies, Gendel recorded the album in five-or-so weeks, during which time he became well-acquainted with the river’s tidal rise and fall. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis organic rhythm, which daily lifted the house to meet the horizon, later setting it down gently upon the riverbed, permeates \u003ci\u003eblueblue\u003c\/i\u003e is a conceptually sound, mesmerizing, evocative, and sonically idiosyncratic LP. Real ones know, and for those who don’t yet, \u003ci\u003eblueblue\u003c\/i\u003e is an accessible and intoxicating entry-point into Gendel's ever-expanding catalog.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Leaving Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50426767343947,"sku":"2009345","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/77a448de-e8bb-416d-b1af-71780ad37fbf_af027bb8_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726817209","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/products\/blueblue","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}