Photo by Kristen Finn
Night Teacher, the experimentally laced music project of Blue Ridge Mountain's poet / singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel and multi-instrumentalist / producer Matt Wyatt, are artfully minded. I mean, even the first image on their Facebook page looks like a Sally Mann photo and holds within it a sense of mystery, performance and melancholia. Their track "Even When It's Bent" holds those things too and more. The percussive tones sort of feel like they are improvised (whether they are or not). It is as if they found things around their house to make the sounds. I am sure I am absolutely wrong in this thought but it persists and (for me) makes those sounds feel so organic and interesting. Then they pour on layers of sounds, dour, cold and dark as Bechtel's layered vocals lift you up. Her vocal aesthetic works perfectly as a storyteller, there is at once a sagely presence in her powerful lilt but it is one that also feels broken as hopelessness and hope play a fierce game of tug of war.
Wyatt's layers of mellotron, upright and synth bass and drum groove are beautiful and beyond. He incorporates swells, drones of messed up sounds too, not messed up as in bad but as in a photo that has scratches and even tears. It makes for an even more haunted vision. Dark, gothic, sepia images might pepper your mind. The cello sounds feel so dark and the tactile textures of the plucky bass are brilliant. Press notes indicate "Even When It's Bent" is "Inspired by the experience of looking for security in unsustainable places, this new song explores whether a messy reach for what we need is ever truly wrong, if it propels us forward towards what we truly seek."
Check out the Official Lyric video created by Cat Kneip. I know I will come back to "Even When It's Bent" often and I think you will too.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
nightteachermusic.com
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Emerging from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Night Teacher is a collaboration between poet and singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel and multi-instrumentalist and producer Matt Wyatt. Their independent debut record, Night Teacher, was released in June 2020.
Since its’ release, Night Teacher has won Music With a Conscience Series, been featured on Women of Substance Radio, and been noted by the music magazine Relix as an “artist to pay attention to.”
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
nightteachermusic.com
YouTube
Emerging from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Night Teacher is a collaboration between poet and singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel and multi-instrumentalist and producer Matt Wyatt. Their independent debut record, Night Teacher, was released in June 2020.
Since its’ release, Night Teacher has won Music With a Conscience Series, been featured on Women of Substance Radio, and been noted by the music magazine Relix as an “artist to pay attention to.”
Blue Ridge Mountains, singer songwriter, Lilly Bechtel, multi-instrumentalist, producer Matt Wyatt, "Even When It's Bent",
No comments:
Post a Comment