As a practicing psychoanalyst and a former founding member of the San Francisco psychedelic collective Citay, New York based guitarist and composer Ezra Feinberg is able to create music that appeals on multiple levels – thoughtful and humanistic on one hand and buoyantly experimental on the other. In calling his forthcoming third album Soft Power, Feinberg cleverly deploys a term most of us associate with geopolitics in a musical context and then epitomizes the idea with an inviting set of colorful tunes and lively improvisations that makes it easy for listeners to embrace.
The new album due out in May on the Tonal Union imprint is Feinberg’s third and features guest appearances throughout by Mary Lattimore, David Moore (Bing & Ruth) and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, as well as David Lackner, Robbie Lee, Russell Greenberg, Britt Hewitt, and John Thayer. Feinberg had a very clear concept for what he wanted the record to convey, and with the help of this talented group of collaborators, he brings it life with warmth and vibrancy.
A case in point is the album’s lead single “Future Sand” featured here. The foundation of the piece is a “Reichian” pulse of luminous finger-picked guitar that ticks along like an organic clockwork while the melodic voices of flute and synth soar and spiral above. The song is emblematic of the how the soft power concept fits the vision of the album. Rather than confront or overwhelm, it creates a potent appeal by painting an idyllic scene for us listeners to step into and enjoy.
Much like everyday life, I wanted to convey these very plain, simple, tranquil, nearly quotidian aspects, but each piece contains this arc in which that form expands, is broken out of, so what starts out like a painting of flowers in a seaside motel turns into a riot of color and sound, or you feel slipped into a dream that feels like it could go on forever.
Ezra Feinberg
Pre-Order: Bandcamp (LP/digital)
Soft Power will be released on May 31, 2024, on the London-based Tonal Union imprint. The album was mastered by Josh Bonati and features as cover art a photograph by Marc Alcock, taken from the book and series California Topiary.
Stationary Travels 