Tenebrae

Gregg Belisle-Chi‘s first album Tenebrae as a leader is another one that’s hard to categorize. Hovering somewhere between contemporary classical and jazz, it transcends those labels through its haunting expressive depth. It also relates to the “alternate” tradition of new music for solo guitar going back to John Fahey, as well as the “avant folk” of artists like Robin Holcomb.

Now living in Brooklyn, Gregg was then part of the Seattle scene (Bill Frisell was a mentor) and was working in various genres including avant-garde, pop/rock/folk, and chamber. The vocals on three tracks are by his wife, Chelsea Crabtree. As Gregg tells it, “At the time I was listening to a lot of Ligeti, Bartok, and other 20th century classical composers, as well as trying to figure out Ben Monder’s sound and his approach to harmony. Guitar is the instrument I know best, and that seemed like a good place to start studying composition. I know its limitations, especially my limitations, and I know how it can be manipulated to create music that might not be familiar to audiences. I’m always trying to convey ‘beauty’ in my compositions, but, simultaneously, I was also paying a lot of attention to harmonic dissonance and investigating how that feels, what kind of emotions it delivers, but I was very conscious about composing clear melodies and trying to make functional sense out of otherwise harmonically dissonant chord progressions.”

The music is through-composed; words and songwriting are a central focus: “For this music I drew a lot of inspiration from writers: when it came to composing, I divided up all the elements similarly to how you might a piece of fiction, in terms of form, phrase, structure, characters, development, motifs. A lot of this music was also influenced by literature: for example, ‘Fear and Trembling’ comes from a philosophical work by Kierkegaard…More and more I’m attracted to the idea of incorporating songwriting into a jazz/improvising ensemble. I think jazz sort of missed the mark by just taking the Great American Songbook and using the chord progressions as vehicles to improvise over; everything is about the instrumental solo and the virtuosity of the players, but that leaves out the listeners who might want to hear a great story or who appreciate great poetry, anyone who’s attracted to words, which seems like a majority of listeners today.”

Two of the songs feature Gregg’s lyrics, while “Sabbaths X (1998)” is a setting of a Wendell Berry poem, which Gregg cites as “one of the most beautiful love letters I’ve ever read. I was so moved by it that I thought it would make for a nice piece of music that Chelsea and I could perform together.” As for the album’s title, “In the early stages of composing I was paying a lot of attention to the smallest details: notes, phrase construction, the ‘architecture’ of the pieces. But I wasn’t paying any attention to shading or color, or light and shadow. Once I started thinking about those things, in terms of harmony and tone, the pieces really started to transform. So ‘tenebrae’, Latin for ‘shadow’, seemed appropriate…My guitar/effects/amplification setup changes a lot, but I will generally use a volume pedal for swells and dynamics, distortion when it is appropriate, minor delay to add a little dimension to the sound, and reverb. All of this runs stereo into two tube amplifiers which I have eq’d a little differently. This gives me a lot more options in post-production to dial in the sound that I have in my head…Recording was done in two days, everything was live. We recorded to analog tape, because I prefer that sound on guitars and also I knew that it would make me commit to takes, rather than having the option to do overdub after overdub.”

Recorded in Analog on August 1-2, 2014 at Soundhouse Studios, Seattle, and mixed in PCM 24 bit, 96 kHz  at Chapman Street Sound Studio, Bellingham, WA, by Trevor Spencer. Mastered by Chris Vita. ”

Gregg Belisle-Chi, Electric Guitar
Chelsea Crabtree, Vocals (Tracks 1, 3, 7)”