I live in a small
town. Adamstown, PA is the antique capitol of the country, apparently. Within a
few miles, there are dozens of little antique shops and a few monolithic
warehouses that hold relics from the past. Aside from those, there are a few
gas stations, a Dunkin Donuts, and a bunch of fields.
The closest
“cities” are Reading and Lancaster. Reading, as in Reading Railroad (pronounced
red-ing) from Monopoly, is mostly an artistic vacuum; it has little to offer.
I’ve met some good people there , but the music isn’t innovative - it's mostly
one-dimensional. Lancaster, on the other hand, has a growing arts scene. It’s
seen some national acts form within its bounds and they’ve definitely helped
the area to grow. Beyond those, we’re not terribly far from Philly; which, like
most major cities, boasts its fair share of competent musicians
But in between
cities, in rural Pennsylvania, art is somewhat of an anomaly. Art is something
you read about from afar. You hear music on the radio there, but it isn’t art
…right? As much as I loathe cities, they do art pretty well. Rural
Pennsylvania, though much more livable, can be a dreary vacuum of musical
irrelevancy at times ...most of the time.
So I try to be
musically relevant; I try to make people think and feel in ways that are far
more complex than rural PA demands. And sometimes it seems like I’m the only
one. The cultural monotony in some areas holds artistic progress in bondage.
And it’s dark. The prospects of playing with another Mark Hunsberger seem
increasingly unfavorable. Those people don’t exist here to talk to, let alone
collab with.
But I recently
found a light. Maybe not for collaboration or even to see live. But someone is
out there making great music. In Ephrata; a short hop, skip, and jump down the
road from Adamstown.
It happened last
week. I got my weekly Reverbnation email and saw that my local ranking in the
instrumental category had dropped to 7. Not long ago, there weren’t even 7
instrumental acts claiming to be from Denver, PA, so I was intrigued. Having
come from Reading, I was expecting a bunch of “beat producers” or something
hip-hoppy like that. Occasionally, they'll pop up on the charts, but only fall
back to irrevalancy. Yes, there were a few of them on there; however, one of
the artists caught my eye, the autumn.
Clearly with a name
like the autumn, the act couldn’t be a tasteless wannabe rap producer, could
they? The singer-songwriter styled photo further distanced the autumn from what
I was expecting. After clicking on their profile, I then saw bands cited in
their “sounds like” section the likes of Explosions in the Sky and This Will
Destroy You; two of my favorite post-rock bands of all time!
Hitting play on the
first track, Migration Patterns, I expected to be disappointed. I expected a
poor recording with stagnant writing. Yes, I’m cynical; I’ve held my hopes too
high, too often. At best, I was hoping for a cheap knock off of This Will
Destroy You. At best.
And then it
happened. The first note resounded, masterfully catching every nuance in its
droning reverberation, echoing through the space so perfectly laid out for it.
And then another, powerfully building sustain. Nearly 30 seconds of single note
sonic perfection passed, leading into a textural sea of spacey overdriven
guitars, drums, and bass.
These are stories.
They’re emotive of their respective titles, aptly named, but in no need of
explanation. Each piece flows from note to note with such fluidity as to read
as words read within a single breath. There is nothing lost to poor attack or
poorly intonated instrument. And tonally, it’s all there.
Later, after
further investigation, I discover that it’s just this one guy, Chris; he’s a
local worship leader and wanted to do something different, expressing his
testimony in music, but not burning out on vocals. Post-rock is the perfect
canvas for such expression. And this guy, Chris, nails it. I'm intrigued to
hear more about each piece and how it fits into his testimony and why each
piece came into existence. There is more meaning interjected into an individual
song than in other artists' entire albums.
And I really want
to know what kind of mind did all of this. ONE person did this?! Not many
people are gifted enough to be able to piece together such intricate, cohesive
work.
And, again, this is
a single guy. In small-town Lancaster county, nonetheless. There is hope.
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