Includes digital pre-order of Three Rivers.
You get 2 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
digital album releases February 19, 2021
item ships out on or around February 18, 2021
edition of 100
$25USDor more
Streaming + Download
Pre-order of Three Rivers. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Written in January of 2019 during a song-a-day exercise, the instrumental pieces on Three Rivers produce a captivating calmness with shadowy undertones, melodically tending towards introspection. Guitar is at the forefront supported by piano and synth, strings, and sparse percussion. Elements of film music, pastoral jazz, and Americana create a meditative mood which is enhanced by the underlying pulse of each song. This is music that rewards patient, active listening.
As part of the songwriting exercise that produced Three Rivers, Dugre churned out a new piece of music each day. The purpose was to build a routine of writing and creativity. The only rule was to submit something daily — an improvisation, loose sketch, or fully orchestrated piece. Everything counts.
The benefit of this deliberately fast pace is that it leaves little time for second-guessing. By forcing you to commit to an idea quickly, this method eliminates overthinking and presents a more honest depiction of the original thought. This is also the challenge — at the end of the day, you must live with your output, and allow yourself to be vulnerable as your colleagues listen to your work.
Using a barely functioning laptop and one microphone, Dugre embraced the limitations of this process. “My usual approach to writing is to methodically work out a solo guitar arrangement; melody, harmony, and bass all intertwined and performed simultaneously,” he says. “It takes a week or so to get it right.” This time, he started with a rhythm part on guitar or piano, and then added melody after. For many of the pieces he imagined someone singing the melody, and tried to get close to creating that with slide guitar, piano, or synth.
credits
releases February 19, 2021
Written and performed by Ryan Dugre, with:
Brett Lanier - pedal steel guitar
Ian Mclellan Davis - string arrangements
Ali Jones - cello
Thomas Martin - violin
Hannah Selin - viola
Sean Mullins - drums
Eric Lane - synth on Foxglove
Adam Dotson - flugabone
Will Graefe - co-wrote Shining
Mixed by Leo Abrahams
Mastered by Michał Kupicz
Engineered by Adam Sachs at Trout Recording
Additional engineering and editing by Jeremy McDonald
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