Sir Richard Bishop is back from his travels around the world! With Oneiric Formulary, his forthcoming album due out April 17th via Drag City, he’s dug deeper into his bag of extra-musical gestures from the eternal and unknowable, along with a few sounds we might recognize, all transmuted for our mortal ears’ enjoyment.
The title Oneiric Formulary, may sit contrarily on the tongue – but we may refer to it as representing ‘a collection of dream states’ – which means we like it! With such a lofty goal in mind and at his fingertips, Sir Rick returns to the approach of his DC debut, Polytheistic Fragments – a different sound, a different instrument, for nearly every track, drawing from the music of all nations, including and especially that infamous republic with only one person on the census roll (initials SRB).
You’ve got sounds that don’t sound at first like guitars – because they’re not! Then you’ve got sounds that sound initially like guitars – because they are! Sir Richard found joy in not only finding unlikely sounds, but also writing a fake jingle, soundtracking an unreleased film, reflecting on Southern origins, going concrète (Beatles-style!), using computers (Sir Rick, no!), and accidentally juxtaposing Frippian electric guitar drone against the grit of ol’ school acoustic guitar.
It’s all trotted out to phantasmic effect, as it brings to us with the freshness, the roar of the old crowd as they see, smell and hear the greatest show on earth. What a night! Examine the video for “Celerity” above with your ears perked and pre order the album before the April 17th release date!
Photo credit: Alan Bishop
One Response
Damn I can’t wait for the EP to drop. Sir Richard is such an amazing artiste.