Last year in 2020 Ross Hammond and Kevin Corcoran got together and made a record, Music For Lighthouses 1, another in a line of atypical duets from the boundary-defying guitarist Hammond. That apparently worked out so well, Music For Lighthouses 2 recently became the second release from the two.
Hammond has gotten together with a lot of different percussionists like Corcoran in recent years, simplifying the improvisation process to a one-on-one affair. Over time it’s become more apparent from these and his solo guitar albums that Hammond demonstrates a natural, unforced adeptness in turning folk and country blues into a free form. And every different partner he chooses to jam with add a different hue to Hammond’s trance-like stylings. San Francisco-based Corcoran is an open-minded percussionist deep into sonic exploration who also works with field recordings and electronics, so his approach to music lines up nicely with Hammond’s.
Pastoral psychedelic drones are the order of the day with Music For Lighthouses 2, minimalist renderings using Delta bluesmen tools of trade as a foundation.
Somewhere around the seven-minute mark of the twenty-minute “Dampened,” Hammond starts looping and sampling his steel guitar, amplifying this ambient feeling. Corcoran bides his time before conjuring up a rhythm that tracks the oscillations in Hammond’s shimmering, hypnotic loop. “Heavy Fog” also stays rooted on a chord but flows much, much freer rhythmically and Corcoran comes up with an array of natural percussive effects with which to complement Hammonds fingerpicked acoustic guitar. “What Have You Lost” slowly builds to a crescendo and then slowly fades away, the cadence nimbly regulated by Corcoran.
Like the first Lighthouse, Hammond and Corcoran’s follow up is offered by Gold Lion Records, and all the proceeds goes to the Sacramento Food Bank. Get Music For Lighthouses 2 from Bandcamp.
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