A Man About A Horse (Remastered) Steve Tibbetts

• 1 Lupra 04:43
• 2 Red Temple 06:36
• 3 Black Temple 10:06
• 4 Burning Temple 03:58
• 5 Glass Everywhere 03:58
• 6 Lochana 03:40
• 7 Chandoha 05:53
• 8 Koshala 05:54
• Total Runtime 44:48

Info zu A Man About A Horse (Remastered)

Eight years separate 1993’s The Fall Of Us All and A Man About A Horse, during which time Steve Tibbetts met with an accident that required him to have surgery on his right hand. Before the procedure, the story goes, the reclusive Minnesotan laid down all the guitar parts for A Man About A Horse in his home studio, thus leaving a skeleton as solid as his was uncertain. This apocryphal information matters little, however, once “Lupra” reaches its hands, zombie-like, from the soil. The tap of tabla and twang of acoustic guitar engage in intimate conversation, seeming to diagram hitherto unheard regions of the guitarist’s postmodern terrains. The continental drift of his sound is as tectonically aware as ever: sparkling, sure, and ceremonially poignant like the flames on the album’s cover. This teetering session indeed holds on its kindling shoulders a giant cauldron, in which the listener becomes like the fabled frog, unaware of the lethal heat flowering around him. Spirits beckon from behind the beams of the “Red Temple,” wherein slumber the relics of a nameless saint: the faintest sliver of fingernail, a baby’s-breath of hair…each the element of an alchemy that can only be taught through sound. “Black Temple” magnifies the possibility of transformation by polishing its sole crucible to an ember’s glow. Whether in the earthen percussion or transcendent sustains, echoes of The Fall Of Us All permeate every decorated wall, if in a more contemplative mode.

The ambience intensifies in “Burning Temple,” neither exploding nor imploding but shining like a distant sun in search of a planet. The weight of feet sifting through the crumble leaves tracks and trails, and it is over these Tibbetts and his band trace their peace-bringing hands. The scene is crystal clear, as the title of “Glass Everywhere” would seem to imply. The destruction wrought upon the site is internal, and it is along this emotional landscape that the herds of the musicians’ imagination run like the buffalo. The search for reasons continues, forever one step behind the answers. But there is no charity anywhere in the world to mend the damage done. Rather, the music itself becomes the mechanism by which this assemblage coheres into offering. By now, the heat has become so strong that our little frog legs can no longer kick for all the shock. The raw becomes the cooked: a point of no return.

A way out reveals itself in the twisted metal of “Lochana,” in which an electric guitar cries with all the ache of the prairie. A glass eye in the face of “Chandoha” acts as telescope into the private fears that lurk in the backdrop. The air abounds with fragrance, the guitar a match touched to incense. All of which presses “Koshala” into a diamond of such finality that it’s all Tibbetts can do to keep up with its fluttering heart. The delicacy of tabla and sweeping accents of guitar paint an adobe-hued theory of existence at large. With the very landscape as its brush, it emotes in global self-portraits of light. Here emerges a lone sojourner, one who ranges like the Gunslinger of Stephen King’s Dark Tower, unaware of the tangled web of bodies in which he is destined to be enmeshed. And really, destination is something we can always count on in the Tibbetts experience, for we are there the moment we take our first step.

Steve Tibbetts, guitars, percussion
Marc Anderson, percussion
Marcus Wise, percussion
Jim Anton, bass

Produced by Manfred Eicher

Digitally remastered

Steve Tibbetts
a Minneapolis-based American guitarist, is known for his unique approach to sound-forming and composition. He was born in Madison in Wisconsin in 1954. He was in college when his first two records were made. Although Yr was self-published, it gained some attention, particularly from electric guitar fans. The record had many overdubs. One track could have as many as 50, creating a unique soundscape. Steve Tibbetts, like Brian Eno and other artists, views the recording studio a tool to create sounds. He often works and reworks the sounds he finds, incorporating them into musical tracks. (e.g. the footsteps on Safe Journey’s track “Running”, or the chanting from Nepalese villagers on Big Map Idea’s last tracks). In 1982, Tibbetts made Northern Song for ECM Records. This was an attempt by Tibbetts to be able to record his music in Manfred Eicher’s very fast recording style. ECM albums usually take two days to record. Northern Song received harsh reviews. Tibbetts returned to his old method of recording slowly over several months (or more). Manfred Eicher did not produce his subsequent records. However, they received better reviews. Steve Tibbetts can play acoustic or electric guitars as well as the kalimba. His musical compositions cover many genres and styles, including jazz, rock, fusion and new age. Often, a single composition may contain more than one style or genre. Five albums were released in the 1980s; three in 1990; and two in 2000. Other artists he has collaborated with include Knut Hamre, a Norwegian hardingfele musician, and Choying Drolma, a Tibetan nun. Marc Anderson, Steve’s long-time collaborator, is featured on all of the discography recordings, except for the “Steve Tibbetts.” album. You can purchase a CD-Rom containing a variety of sound textures and loops by Steve Tibbetts. In the middle of the 1980s, Steve Tibbetts stopped performing live. He began to travel extensively in Nepal in the late 1980s, where he met Choying Drolma (a Tibbetan Buddhist nun). Although Cho was not meant to be a commercial recording, it was released and received some positive reviews. Selwa, the second collaboration, was more thoughtfully considered and received very positive reviews. It is an example of a successful meeting between two musical traditions. (Creative Commons By–SA License.)

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