Dream Box (Modern Recordings)
Pat Metheny
Released June 2023
Jazzwise Top 20 Albums of the Year 2023
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Instrumental Album 2024
Pitchfork 30 Best Jazz and Experimental Albums of 2023
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2023
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nztklELR74j_JlrduggdInxpjHE4wStWs
Spotify:
About:
“Dream Box is an unusual recording for me; a compilation of solo tracks recorded across a few years that I discovered while listening on tour. During the extensive touring period that made up most of 2022 for me, I found a forgotten folder on my drive. I often make quick recordings of things; a new tune, a new (or old) guitar, a standard tune, or just to try something out. I have a spot in my laptop where I stash these things. And truthfully; often never to be heard again.
Usually, the only time I get to listen to my own stuff is while on the road. I often say I live on output, with little or no time for input. That changes on tour, where suddenly there seems to be more free hours in the day, albeit on a bus or in some far-flung hotel room. Occasionally, those moments offer a chance to rummage around in the files to see if anything interesting may lie there.
This past year was a particularly busy travel year for me, with about 160 performances worldwide. In the course of all that travel, I found myself returning to that discovered folder lots of times, genuinely surprised at what I was finding in there.
From those listening sessions, I gradually sifted through everything to find this program emerging as a coherent whole. I found that I had unintentionally gotten to a destination I had not planned for, and I am excited to share what was buried in there.
These nine tracks were my favorites and added up to something unique for me. I never played any of these initial tracks included here more than that once. These are really moments in time, and in fact, I have almost no memory of having recorded most of them. They just kind of showed up.
Every track but one reflects a method of recording that began for me on the piece Unity Village way back on Bright Size Life; an initial harmonic part laid down with the chords followed by a second track of melodic and improvisational material.
The focus here is on electric guitar, but maybe more to the point; quiet electric guitar. It is an area of particular interest for me. A goal has always been to have a touch on the electric that might get me as close to the kind of phrase-by-phrase dynamics that can occur naturally with an acoustic instrument. In fact, using an electric in this way is quite a bit harder than what occurs naturally with an acoustic. There is one more step between the touch of the player and the listener that has to be accounted for.
Ballads. I write one a day it seems – more than I can keep track of, actually. Charlie Haden was the guy who encouraged me to not just write a lead sheet, but to document each thing I write by doing even just a simple recording of it. So, yet again, thanks, Charlie.
Regarding the title, box is musician slang for a hollow-body electric guitar. Using that vernacular, there are some super cool Dream Box instruments represented on this recording, including the prototype of new instrument I have been working with Ibanez on that reflects my interest in pre-war Charlie Christian style pick-ups.
But dreams in their broadest sense make up the vibe with this set. Music exists for me in an elusive state, often at its best when discovered apart from any particular intention.
I hope folks might find some dreams of their own in this music.”
Pat
Track Listing:
1. The Waves Are Not The Ocean (Pat Metheny) 5:39
2. From The Mountains (Pat Metheny) 8:20
3. Ole & Gard (Pat Metheny) 6:33
4. Trust Your Angels (Pat Metheny) 5:28
5. Never Was Love (Russ Long) 5:57
6. I Fall In Love Too Easily (Styne / Cahn) 5:08
7. P.C. Of Belgium (Pat Metheny) 5:00
8. Morning Of The Carnival (Maria / Bonfa) 6:42
9. Clouds Can’t Change The Sky (Pat Metheny) 7:14
Personnel:
Pat Metheny: electric guitar, baritone guitar
Recorded 2021-22 at High Rocks
Producer: Pat Metheny
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Pete Karam
Mix/Master Consultant: Steve Rodby
Design: Doyle Partners
Review:
Although this is a ‘solo’ guitar recording, there are several Pat Methenys at work on here. The first Pat Metheny lays down the chords and harmonic structure, the second Pat Metheny adds the composition’s melody and improvisations on top, and a third Pat Metheny is concerned with post-production. The sound is big without being loud (unless you dial up the volume beyond normal settings), and in a sense orchestral too, since with Pat Metheny all roads lead back to the Pat Metheny Group. He sees the bigger picture, not a broad canvas, but in terms of the inner detail necessary to realise the music’s full potential.
And that is why this album is an unqualified success and an important addition to his distinguished discography. There are no extremes of tempo, one composition leads into the next, to create an overall listening experience – what used to be called ‘the album experience’ – or musical journey and because it functions as both background and foreground music it finds a place in your life.
Stuart Nicholson (Jazzwise)
