Now that a sweeping retrospective and some reissues are out of the way, Carl Weingarten is ready for something new again. The accomplished producer, guitarist and ambient/New Age artist had last March released his first fresh batch of recordings since Ember Days (2021), titled Songs For a Perigee Moon.
With the consummate fretless electric bassist Michael Manring by his side for almost all of it, Weingarten invents bright, soothing melodies that seamlessly combine the organic with the synthetic for a distinctive, fluid sound that Weingarten forged more the four decades ago. Though easy to listen to, closer listening reveals all the subtleties put into his songs.
The soft groover “Ember Nights” exemplifies how Weingarten can take a song up a notch when he starts to play that electric slide guitar. Over a bed of feathered acoustic guitars on “A Late Spring” and “Silvana,” his slightly stinging electric guitar lines provides the right complement. New Age trumpet force Jeff Oster stops in for “Rise Of A Perigee Moon” where Weingarten’s slide guitar against a pedal delay backdrop creates a floating, shimmering sound cloud for Oster to pierce through. Weingarten pulls out his resonator guitar for “Ennio’s Gold,” and joins in unison lines with Oster on flugelhorn.
Bill Ortiz and his wafting, muted trumpet graces “Alma’s Dance,” a song that’s almost jazz fusion. Manring and Kit Walker on piano get featured and make good on them. That weeping slide returns for a lyrical turn during “A Wolf in Winter” and for “Twilight Reminisce,” Weingarten adds a string quartet type backing through the wonders of technology and his pioneering flair for leveraging it. The virtual orchestral backing is employed for “A New Remembering” as well.
Songs For a Perigee Moon is available today, from Bandcamp.
*** Carl Weingarten CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Peter Somuah – ‘Walking Distance’ (2026) - March 13, 2026
- Soft Machine – ‘Thirteen’ (2026) - March 4, 2026
- Devin Gray – ‘Hz Of Gold‘ (2026) - March 2, 2026
