distant by tim nelson

More of a sketchbook than a proper album, "Distant" was recorded (mostly) outdoors as (mostly) a series of smartphone video clips. In keeping with the spirit of isolation and social distancing, each track on the album features an improvised performance using just one instrument recorded extemporaneously, usually in one take. While there is some degree of studio processing of the original recordings, this is kept (mostly) to a minimum and you will hear mistakes left in, airplanes flying overhead, birds tweeting, bulldozers bulldozing and the like. You might not like it but, then again, you might like it a whole lot. People are starting to tell me it's growing on them after repeated listening.

Track 1: For '(Ain't Got) No Plump Swans (In My Moat)', I played a hurdy-gurdy in the woods. I usually hold the instrument differently (and almost correctly) but as this was a very Plumpton-specific homage, I felt it to be important that the song remain the same. Crunchy footsteps courtesy of Dr. Carrie Ann May.

Track 2 is called 'Slow Bump' because while I was in the woods playing it on the Puerto Rican cuatro, a man with a backhoe came along and put up a big piece of plywood with that written upon it. I took it as a sign. Then the man with the backhoe dug up the road and said "None shall pass."

Track 3, 'Shady' is played under a magnolia tree in the back yard on a ukelin with two bows.

Track 4, played in the back yard on baritone acoustic guitar, is called 'Burning Bush' because I thought that was the name of the shrubbery beside me as I played it. I was informed later that the plant in question is not a burning bush at all. It’s actually a red azalea. I'm not calling this 'Azalea' though...

Track 5 is called 'Highly Strang But Yet So Low' and is played on Nashville-strung acoustic guitar.

Track 6 is called 'Gadzooks! A Blue Zucchini!' for no good reason whatsoever and is played on the Irish bouzouki.

Track 7 is called 'Aerosol' and features flute played through a cheap old Wollensak microphone and some guitar effects pedals.

Track 8 is called 'Slippery Little Armadillo' because the charango almost escaped from me a few times while I was playing it because it has a round back and I have a round front. New Hampshire is not its natural habitat and I’m not sure how long a charango could survive out in the woods on its own.

Track 9, 'Дед Мороз летом ('Grandfather Frost in Summer') is played on a 5-string resonator guitar.

Track 10 is played on violin and is called "When the Devil Takes Off His Mask (and he's got another one on under it...". It was recorded while wearing a smelly red rubber devil mask.

Track 11 is played in the woods on a half-Nashville-strung acoustic guitar and is called 'Black Fly (Simulium venestum)' because that's what was biting me while I played it.

Track 12, 'Shady (Slight return)', is another version of track 3, played on a ukelin with two bows in the backyard under a magnolia tree.

Track 13 is "Murder Hornet", played on violin through delays, reverbs and loopers.

Track 14, Silkwood Scrubdown' (for half-Nashville-strung acoustic guitar) was the very first thing recorded for this album and was originally meant to have cello and viola parts overdubbed on top of it before I realized that this was going to be an album of strictly solo pieces.

Track 15 , 'Snag Forest' is an improvisation on lap steel guitar.

Track 16: You have found the secret, hidden bonus track!

'Feuille Morte' is a trans-Atlantic collaboration (New Hampshire and Stockholm) between Tim Nelson and Jonathan Segel (Camper van Beethoven, Sparklehorse, Øresund Space Collective and many more) who added a violin part to Nelson's existing track 'Silkwood Scrubdown'.

Jonathan Segel: violin (Hear more from Jonathan Segel at https://music.jsegel.com/ )
Tim Nelson: half-Nashville-strung acoustic guitar

Tim Nelson is a film composer, sound designer and multi-instrumentalist session musician/producer. He has since 2007 been a frequent collaborator with award-winning filmmakers/animators the Quay Brothers.

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