Burley Time Rec.
Nick Schillace : Landscape and people (US,2008)****/***°
One rich chord starts the album majestatically but ultrashort (-in the Basho tradition-), then immediately shows another world of rather melodic, descriptive picking tunes. You can hear in them an optimistic view that brings back in mind a past of American folk, hints to certain blues traditions and even a short old time music memory while the pickings are presented as an individual story which bring us even to the influence of Nick’s latest studies in journalism : a way of describing and projecting the world he recognises into a descriptive logical order, as if he describes a few things that happened into one tune. "Ching-Chong" for instance, in it's opener, with a technique of quiet opening chords, playing them with space, at this first intro, just like another hint, seems to go back even further, to a Renaissance feeling before switching to a song-like pleasure which evolve to a few old time hints, is although it changes into something very different, it also shows a strong logic for doing so. It is easy to recognise in some of the more up tempo parts some more or less repetitive bass string rhythms, but not any of its parts are returning more than they have to. A perfect listen.
