Steve Gunn

Sessa

Keith Christmas

GreenLady

Kaspar Hauser

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STEVE GUNN - DAYLIGHT DAYLIGHT
(CD/LP /Digital on No Quarter)

It feels like it’s been ages since Steve Gunn released an album of his songs. He’s been busy the past few years with various projects and collaborations. Earlier in 2025 he released the ambient instrumental LP Music for Writers. And although Daylight Daylight sees him return to his more familiar singer-songwriter genre, the two albums feel like they have a connection, both being introspective and contemplative. It’s as if Music for Writers was the sonic backdrop for the creative process that gave birth to Daylight Daylight, and maybe it was.

Gunn’s acoustic guitar playing is nimble and atmospheric as ever. He teams with frequent collaborator and producer James Elkington, and with the arrangements and touches Elkington adds to Gunn’s understated vocals and guitar, the album has a warm, wintry sound and a gorgeous production sheen akin to their earlier collaborations. Steve sure has been in a mellow mood lately. Although I can attest to the fact that both onstage and in previous albums he can plug in and rock, here and on Music for Writers he chooses mindfulness. The album is quite a mood piece, full of room to expand and breathe, a Sunday morning tea-in-front-of-the-fireplace testament. It seems like musically he’s been slowing and quieting down more and more with time, but you’ll get no complaints if this album is what results. He’s in no mood to hurry on any of the seven tracks, each of them moseying at their own chill pace.

My favorite track is the lead-off, “Nearly There.”  Thanks to some interesting chord changes and Elkington’s string arrangements, the track has a brooding, slow-burning tension, almost a disguised sense of menace.  In fact, few music artists brood like Steve Gunn.  He’s perfected Brood Rock.  “Nearly There” points to the end of a journey, perhaps death.  He sings “Already the sky is singin’/Already the bells are ringin’/Already the story’s written/Your name up there.”

“Morning on K Road” is about him running into an old friend in Auckland, New Zealand.  It’s another distilled reflection of a moment in time; a human connection rekindled in an unexpected way.  The music is pure Gunn: meandering, melodic, and soft-spoken.  I also love closer “The Walk.” It’s a quaint, simple track about waking up before the dawn and going for a quiet unhurried stroll, ambling by a river, and sitting on a big rock.  Pretty basic stuff, huh?  But it’s the way he tells it, his fingers caressing the strings, his voice calm, and the smooth, glassy arrangement behind him, that makes everything about it just right.  As the walk, the song and the album gently come to an end, you just sigh and mutter “Ahhhh.”  That’s Steve Gunn, that’s who he is.

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SESSA - PEQUENO VERTIGEM DE AMOR
(CD/LP/Digital on Mexican Summer)

São Paulo-based musician Sergia Sayeg, aka Sessa, released this third LP, and it continues the progression and growth in sophistication from his first two albums Grandeza (2019) and Estrela Acesa (2022). By now, having his own Cosmo studio set up and run by him and his drummer and co-producer Biel Basile, Sessa can better realize his musical dreams. The first two albums’ musicality centered around Sessa’s acoustic guitar and the small combo he assembled. With this album he adds piano as not only a new feather in his cap, but the central instrument for composing and grounding many of his songs’ melodies and rhythms. The guitar is still there, and features heavily in tracks like the instrumental “Roupa Dos Mortos” ("Clothing of the Dead"), the unapologetically dripping romance of “Revolução Interior” and “Dodói,” (translated loosely as “Boo-Boo.”)

That last mentioned title relates to the seismic shift in his life that newly becoming a father has caused. The subject matter of his lyrics has evolved over his three albums from eroticism to the dynamics of relationships to now, the meaning of this new fatherhood and his place and purpose in the universe as a result. Of course, he sings all this in Portuguese, and to these untrained ears as least as far as that language goes, I can only go by sound and feel, and what I hear consistently on all three albums is Sessa’s soft, romantic voice, the sensitive arrangements and smooth, easy melodies. In other words, they all sound sultry and romantic to me, but your mileage may vary.

In addition to more instruments, the album, translated as “Lil’ Love Vertigo,” is jazzier than its predecessors. Melodically, there are a few more adventurous left turns where you might expect right, and vice versa. The core musicians Sessa, Basile on drums and Marcelo Cabral on bass lay down the solid sway of the rhythm. Background vocalists CecÍlia Góes, Lau Ra, Ina, and Paloma Mecozzi provide a ghostly accent, as on all his albums. The tasteful arrangements adding a floral dose of color include strings, flutes, saxophone and a Brazilian electric piano called a Suette.

Also well worth mentioning are the splendid contributions from Sessa’s friend and frequent collaborator Alex Chumak, who plays electric piano, synthesizer, and composed the laid back, fluttery flute arrangement on “Bicho Lento” ("Slow Creature") that dances around Sessa’s wah-wah guitar. Chumak’s band SOYUZ makes similar sounding music, and we reviewed their excellent album KROK last month. KROK was recorded mostly in Sessa’s Cosmo studio in São Paulo. The two friends contribute freely to each other’s work, and they tend to come out with new albums around the same time. This Sessa album and SOYUZ’s KROK are very complimentary albums. Each has a little something the other lacks, but their respective sounds aren’t a mile apart. Sessa’s and Chumak’s voices even sound similar (to these ears at least).

Sessa’s music continues to be inspired and informed by the great Brazilian masters of the past, though on "Pequena Vertigem de Amor" he equally cites Sly Stone, Roy Ayers and Shuggie Otis as influences on the album’s lushness and funkiness. It’s been a joy watching him grow as an artist, and no doubt his next album will feature even more complexity and sophistication.

(Mark Feingold)

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KEITH CHRISTMAS - LIVE AT THE ADELPHI
(Bandcamp)

Astonishingly, this is only Keith's second live album in his nearly 60-year career dating back to his appearance on three tracks on David Bowie's second eponymous album (commonly called Space Oddity after the career-launching hit). Recorded at the cozy, 200-seat New Adelphi Club in Hull a month before his 79th birthday, the set finds him in excellent voice and  full of energy as he treats his appreciative audience to nimble-fingered acoustic selections of (seemingly) autobiographical observations  from his three most recent albums, Light Of The Dawn (2009), Crazy Dancing Days (2016), and Life, Life (2019). Several new tracks make it into the set, auguring well for a new studio album in the future.

The show opens with the title track to 'Crazy Dancing Days', a nostalgic recollection of his "first trip in the Lots Road," and a 3 a.m. gig at Les Cousins and how those "crazy dancing days" of the '60s have been bastardised into Facebook groups and  corny adverts that "those of us that were there/With bell-bottom loons and flowers in our hair" would hardly recognise.

The title track from 'Light Of The Dawn' precedes three more tracks from Crazy Dancing Days: 'Haul It Up' encourages hope in the face of adversity, a common theme throughout tonight's performance: "Haul it up and let's make sail for the far horizon," but then a wee nervous misstep slips in when Keith accidentally introduces 'Sail With The Sun' as the track he just finished 'Haul It Up'). No worries, 'Talking To The Dead (Again)' recovers beautifully, a touching tribute to an absent friend,  Boz Burrell (King Crimson, Bad Company) that still raises  goose bumps and demonstrates Keith's uncanny ability to wrap autobiographical snapshots inside melancholic rhythms and memorable melodies.

Sticking to recent album titles, 'Life, Life' is another chin-up encouragement that I hailed as "the year's finest acoustic album" upon its 2019 release...and I haven't waivered from that assessment in the years since. Christmas celebrates the magical Stonehenge solstice in  'Round The Stones', while 'Wonderful Ride' still shines in its life-affirming optimism. 

Confirming there's time for a few more, Keith offers three more selections from his latest, in effect performing half the album! 'Travelling Blues' is a funky swagger as Keith slides up and down the guitar evoking the spirit of Elmore James and 'Trouble Trouble' spotlights his prowess on the acoustic guitar (a remastered edition of his Acoustica instrumental album is well worth investigating).

'Top String Down' is the first of the new songs and it snuggles perfectly into its surroundings, its lyrical transmission of fatherly advice will surely help budding guitarists navigate the shady waters of the music business, and the show ends with 'Ships Going Down', another acoustic blues gem that has me polishing off the award for "King Of The Acoustic Blues" to Mr. Christmas.

(Jeff Penczak)

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GreenLady is a new project from Brooklyn husband-and-wife team Joseph Milazzo (acousic guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals) and Sylvia Herrera (vocals) with additional electric guitar textures provided by John LaMacchia who's worked with Julie Christmas, prog metal monsters Candiria, and his own LaMacchia project. With touchstones ranging from the '70s British folk revival to alt-country and psychedelia, there's a wide pallet for the group to paint and they succeed on all accounts. Their debut traverses the musical universe of dark folk, murder ballads, and esoteric mystique with strong storytelling and mystical folkloric imagery. Right up our Terrascopic alley I'd say!

'Hidden World' is an esoteric journey to unravel the mysteries beneath surface appearances and early single 'Bella In The Wych Elm' relates the unsolved true story of a woman's skeleton found inside a tree in Hagley in 1943 (perhaps some of our readers are familiar with it?) It's an eerie folk tale reminiscent of The Green Pajamas' Northern Gothic series and their Goblin Market side project and fans of same will be quite comfortable here, too. Who, indeed, did put Bella in the wych elm?

Staying within the realm of haunted tales, 'Pinelands' explores the apocryphal sightings of the "Jersey Devil" within the Pinelands area of southern New Jersey. [They even have a hockey team named after it!] Be it Sasquatch, Mothman, Big Foot, et. al. there are a lot of creepy things out there in the world that make one want to stay safe in their own home, and the Jersey Devil is just another in that long tradition that seem to make perfect fodder for a scary folk tale and GreenLady are up to the task.

Guided by Shirley Collins and the Albion Band's No Roses album (never a bad place to start), their treatment of the traditional English murder ballad 'Poor Murdered Woman' is a welcome addition to its vast canon. 'The Blue And Silver Queen' is another eerie folk tale, this time venturing into the world of Afro-Cuban folk deities of the sea, which creates as well as destroys life. The arrangement is perfect for navel-gazing introspection and exploring the inner worlds of your subconscious.

The band's own esoteric listening pleasures are revealed with their fine interpretation of Midwinter's 1973 murder ballad 'Sanctuary Stone' (unreleased for two decades) and 'Morning Glory' is a frightful lullaby to sooth nightmares if you can just "rest your head and be still/Sleep will come in the waning hours." I think I'll try that during my next bout of insomnia!

We end on the upbeat(!), eschatological 'Fare Thee Well.' One can take this peek at the end times with a grain of salt or tongue firmly planted in cheek. The stage is set with the opening salvo:

'The ways of the world have us waiting in line
A queue to the end hoping for the divine
The glorious din of the angles await
No cause for concern as we march to the gate."

Whether you see this as a political warning, a Jonestownian apocalypse, or just a hoe down showdown as we high step to oblivion, it's a clever way to end an album...as long as we don't take it too seriously and hope GreenLady have more tales to tell.

Milazzo's crystalline production, the couple's exquisite harmonies, and the delicate interweaving of Milazzo and LaMacchia's guitars make this dark folk effort a success all around and a welcome addition to every Terrascopic music library, particularly for fans of the previously mentioned Green Pajamas projects as well as the work of Terrascope favourites Timothy Renner (Stone Breath, Mourning Cloak), Prydwyn, In Gowan Ring, Sharron Kraus, et. al.

(Jeff Penczak)

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KASPAR HAUSER - LIVE AT ZONE ART CENTER - SPRINGFIELD, MASS. APRIL 24, 1982
(CD/LP available on Mesh Art)

Named after a German youngster who was kept in absolute darkness for the first 16 years of his life (the subject of Werner Herzog's 1974 film Every Man For Himself And God Against All aka The Mystery Of Kaspar Hauser) this Amherst, Massachusetts quartet (UMASS students bassist Tim Power, vocalist/synth player/lyricist David Wildman, guitarist Steve Traiger, and drummer Ted Selke) recorded an EP for Tekno Tunes with David Minehan (Neighborhoods, Replacements) at the controls in 1982. This artifact captures the band live (for a $2.00 donation!) at the opening of a painting and photograph exhibition at the non-profit Zone Arts Center and features the tracks from their EP along with eight previously unreleased tracks.

The appropriate opener 'Mysteries Of The Organism' (a reference, perhaps to Serbian director Dušan Makavejev's controversial film about Wilhelm Reich - these lads are acknowledged fans of underground films and Makavejev coincidentally died seven years ago this week!) catapults the audience into a frenetic blast of keyboard-driven "garage art punk rock"/new wave with a catchy B-52's vibe.

Lead track on the EP 'Living With Fire' kicks the energy up a notch with Selke's drumming serpentining around Wildman's silky synth runs. Selke's also at the forefront of 'Bounty' with Power's throbbing bass and Traiger's slashing guitar navigating Wildman's politically-tinged lyrics. 'Emperor Vito' kicks out the jams and loosens the cobwebs in your gray matter with an arctic blast of unbridles punk snark. Short (two minutes) and not-too-sweet, it garners the evening's most enthusiastic response.

Wildman's synth snorts and squelches into another dimension on the claustrophobic 'People On A Crowded Bus.' Selke is particularly manic throughout, with Power in the groove and Traiger flashing his chops on his impressive solo. This really got the crowd into an uproar of approval.

By the time they reach 'Decision Time' the band is firing on all cylinders and caution is tossed to the wind for another manic free-for-all. 'State Of The Art' has a creepy Gary Numan slither and closer 'Inhibited' sends the crowd home happy, perhaps searching for a CD at the merch table that wasn't meant to be...until now. Nevertheless, I'd say this was the best two bucks they ever spent!

Although the band never completed an album Wildman released several singles with various projects (Rapture Of The Deep, Thinner), Power is currently a professor at the University of Oxford where he serves as the Head of the Social Sciences Division, Traiger plays in a Joy Division tribute band in California, and Selke worked steadily throughout the '80s and '90s in Howard & Tim's Paid Vacation (with Windbreaker Tim Lee), Arms Akimbo, and Drivin' n Cryin'. His latest project The Seventh Ring Of Saturn has contributed to numerous Fruits De Mer tribute album compilations (Pretty Things, Grateful Dead, Hollies, Beatles, Aquarian Age, Ohio Express) and his YouTube page has several videos he filmed at Terrastock 7 in Kentucky in 2008!

(Jeff Penczak)