Almanac Behind

Visionary guitarist Daniel Bachman is steeped in the tradition of American primitive fingerstyle masters such as John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Jack Rose. Almanac Behind is both an anagram of the artist's name and reference to the album's theme, which expresses deep anxiety about rapid environmental changes that have left humans highly vulnerable to staggeringly powerful natural forces. The music on Almanac Behind comprises original compositions performed on standard acoustic instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonium or similar) ‘augmented and shaped by field recordings of one year's worth of weather events.’

The opening track, ‘Barometric Cascade (Signal Collapse)’, begins with the tinkling of wind chimes hanging from the eave in the back of Bachman's house. Improvised slide-guitar fragments cut through droning and radio static, giving way to a collage of severe weather radio warnings (hear ‘8:35 p.m. KHB36 [Alter Course]’). For the segment ‘Gust Front (The Waiting)’, Bachman plucks a plaintive banjo tune before a hailstorm batters the roof with machine-gun intensity in ‘540 Supercell’. ‘Recalibration/Normalization’ brings the album to an uneasy close with loopy distorted guitar riffs wafting over a blustery droning soundscape. Almanac Behind is a highly original, boldly executed concept album, which sets Bachman apart from his peers and predecessors.