feature photo: Eli Winter
Dulcimerist Jen Powers and guitarist Matthew J. Rolin know how to combine their instruments together to create a completely organic, hypnotic effect with the music they create. Since 2018, they’ve put out a handful of records as the Powers/Rolin Duo that showcase the strangely alluring appeal of the whole “psych-folk” genre (Ross Hammond is another artist who is really good at this).
More recently, they’ve tried out something new by adding a drummer, Jayson Gerycz from the indie rock band Cloud Nothings, and the trio is set to unloose their second long player together, Lamplighter, through American Dreams Records.
Ahead of that, they advanced a single, the opening track “Rotations,” streaming in the video above, which sets the tone for the rest of the album.
An acoustic guitar sets up the basic harmony – a root chord from which they never divert – and Powers’ hammered dulcimer and Rolin’s guitar are soon functioning as a single entity. The simplicity of the song is the very thing that gives them the freedom, as long as they stick to that root. The free jazz fan in me hears that aspect of the song and also Gerycz’s galvanic drums, which gets eventually gets pretty turbulent for a while but never comes close to overwhelming the harmonics. That propulsive kick he provides is that special, extra ingredient that raises the mystical level of the song up a couple of notches.
Pre-order/order a copy of Lamplighter from the Gerycz/Powers/Rolin Bandcamp page. Lamlighter will drop on September 3, 2021.
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