With his new self-titled record, Chicagoan Eli Winter has shepherded into existence a beautiful and powerful collection of instrumentals, as the immensely talented guitarist and composer effectively cedes the spotlight to a prodigiously skilled ensemble that includes Cameron Knowler, Ryley Walker, Jordan Reyes, David Grubbs, and jaimie branch (RIP). An LP of broad, captivating intensity, it is Winter’s first for Three Lobed Recordings, out now on 140 gram vinyl and digital.
Eli Winter covers a lot of territory without ever losing focus. It’s cohesive, connecting as a legit album statement instead of a bunch of random pieces assembled in a manner to approximate the same. By the end it really felt like I’d been taken somewhere, and for a set of instrumentals, that’s particularly impressive.
Winter’s debut The Time to Come, released in 2019 on cassette by Blue Hole Recordings and on vinyl the following year by the label Worried Songs, was a solo recording, as was the nearly 23-minute “Either I Would Become Ash” and closing track “Dark Light” from his second album, 2020’s Unbecoming. However, Winter’s discography is also loaded with collaborations, as “Maroon” from Unbecoming featured him leading a band for the first time.
Subsequently, he’s heard on duo sets with pedal steel guitarist Sam Wagster (Live at the Hideout September 24th, 2019, 2020, Dear Life Records), guitarist Cameron Knowler (VXVW, 2021 and Anticipation, 2021, both American Dreams Records) and multi-instrumentalist Jordan Reyes (Controlled Burning, 2022, Husky Pants Records).
As detailed above, Reyes and Knowler are part of the band for Eli Winter, as is Wagster, who really shines in the album’s opener “For a Chisos Bluebonnet.” The sound of the pedal steel, along with the intermingled fingerpicking acoustic (Winter) and electric (Knowler), accentuates a decided Americana-country vibe, but the atmosphere is far from typical, with the crisp drumming of Tyler Damon standing out.
A similar scenario is explored in “Davening in Threes” (Yasmin Williams joins on electric guitar), at least through to the false ending. When the band reignites, it’s with a deeper sense of urgency that doesn’t dissipate until the track’s end, along with a maximal vibrancy to the playing that avoids mere flashiness through a combination of tastefulness and a sense of purpose in realizing the beauty goal.
With Ryley Walker making the scene, “No Fear” detours from the Americana sensibility for a loose abstract collective spillage that gives way to more contemplative yet fibrous guitar playing, only for the sounds of freedom to gradually ramp back up again. It’s an utter treat that flows with heft and edge, as the next cut, “Brain on Ice,” establishes some desert noir ambiance without going full Morricone, which I appreciate.
With “Dayenu,” Winter and band return to the Wagster-led gorgeous energy that kicked off the record, and with another false ending, with the reset this time tapping into a sound that reminds me more than ever of the long gone and much missed North Carolinian outfit Shark Quest. However, the track’s most pleasurable aspect is the full-bodied flugelhorn of jaimie branch, though this is also bittersweet, as branch passed away far too soon just days ago on August 22.
“Unbecoming” begins with David Grubbs’ harmonium, a sweet addition, though inevitably, the guitars kick in, soon joined by the viola of Whitney Johnson and the bowed banjo of Liz Downing. Grubbs reenters the scheme late in the cut as well, and there’s even some wonderfully pretty album-capping wordless vocals in the waning seconds courtesy of Downing and Giulia Chiappetta.
If Winter largely sidesteps the spotlight on his latest, he’s still in firm command of the record’s trajectory. It’s rare for a player so invested in the long history of his instrument to make such fresh sounding music.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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