Tombeaux

Tombeaux, the much-anticipated new album from Paul Metzger, marks ouralchemist's third appearance on Nero's Neptune, following critically acclaimed contributions to labels like Locust and Honest Jon's. Metzger summons the spirits of musical Appalachian forefathers, guitarist Django Reinhardt and classical sitarist Nikhil Banerjee, among others, weaving a peerless, highly individualistic music that sounds unlike anyone but himself. Metzger's playing doesn't imitate raga structures so much as use those modal figures as a starting point. He employs dazzling, breviloquent string plucks on the main banjo strings, whilst producing rhythmic, droning textures on the cross strings of an added bridge. Some have suggested similarities to the works of John Fahey or Sandy Bull, but Metzger's modus operandi doesn't constitute a mirroring of those styles; rather, he composes and operates apart from their music, in an insular and altogether separate universe. In the process, Metzger transcends and expands the lexicon in a wholly organic manner.