Sean Curley’s new album further establishes him as one of the Northwest’s most interesting guitarists. Building on the foundation of his previous solo-guitar full-lengths—Sean Patrick Curley and Empire State Observatories—Curley parlays his fascination with looping, which he’s been doing for nearly 30 years, to explore the instrument’s textural parameters, hypnotic capabilities, and emotional range.
 
Whereas his work with Amber Rossino in the band the Midget focuses on conventional songcraft in a clever retro-futurist vein, Curley’s solo guitar excursions veer toward more extravagant experimentation with tone and form. Sean Curley’s 11 tracks reveal a dazzling technical mastery, combining the pointillist, ultra-bright crystalline arabesques of Sean Patrick Curley with the stark soundtracks for dystopian sci-fi flicks that compose Empire State Observatories.
 
On the new record, Curley’s style encompasses Robert Fripp’s precision and predilection for mantric repetition, Vini Reilly’s glassy melancholy, My Bloody Valentine’s serene beauty, and Snakefinger’s melodic eccentricity. With a keenly cinematic vision, Curley has crafted a record that takes you both inward with poignant meditativeness and outward to vividly alien realms. He keeps you guessing throughout, with the only constant being striking musical inventiveness.
 

Antelope

Confluence

Buildings

Hatzinger

Olmstead

Mimeograph

Old Rome Dam

Lucien

Triplex

En Plein Air

Sean Curley’s new album further establishes him as one of the Northwest’s most interesting guitarists. Building on the foundation of his previous solo-guitar full-lengths—Sean Patrick Curley and Empire State Observatories—Curley parlays his fascination with looping, which he’s been doing for nearly 30 years, to explore the instrument’s textural parameters, hypnotic capabilities, and emotional range.

Whereas his work with Amber Rossino in the band the Midget focuses on conventional songcraft in a clever retro-futurist vein, Curley’s solo guitar excursions veer toward more extravagant experimentation with tone and form. Sean Curley’s 11 tracks reveal a dazzling technical mastery, combining the pointillist, ultra-bright crystalline arabesques of Sean Patrick Curley with the stark soundtracks for dystopian sci-fi flicks that compose Empire State Observatories.

On the new record, Curley’s style encompasses Robert Fripp’s precision and predilection for mantric repetition, Vini Reilly’s glassy melancholy, My Bloody Valentine’s serene beauty, and Snakefinger’s melodic eccentricity. With a keenly cinematic vision, Curley has crafted a record that takes you both inward with poignant meditativeness and outward to vividly alien realms. He keeps you guessing throughout, with the only constant being striking musical inventiveness.