tracks

Shady Road
Light Shine Through
The Song We Sing
Days of Long Ago
The Bridge
The Statue
Water
The Clock
Little Birds
When I Met You
My Dear Friend
3:48
The Wind
Start Here

notes

Revered visual artist B. Wurtz releases his debut album, Some Songs, on October 16 via Hen House Studios. B. Wurtz began studying piano as a child and taught himself guitar as a teen. He also drew and painted. Late in high school his piano teacher urged him to consider a musical career but instead he felt compelled to focus intently on his art practice and has remained an artist to this day. His interest in listening to music has never flagged but performing was not part of his life again until a few years ago. In 2016, his wife Ann gifted him a guitar for their anniversary. While relearning initially proved difficult to uncalloused fingers, a mind sharpened by conceptual art work quickly formed its own refined songwriting approach. YouTube tutorials helped him produce demos on Garageband. He later added lyrics that blended philosophical thought with direct observation; birds and clouds passing outside his windows, signage on New York subways, a clock on his shelf. What resulted is Some Songs, an album produced by Harlan Steinberger at Hen House Studios in Venice.

B. elaborates: “In 2018 I had a survey exhibition of my art at ICA Los Angeles. At the opening party I met Harlan Steinberger, who told me he was a music producer. Later he sent me an album he had just done with Sunny War. I loved it… That led to an amazing collaboration with Harlan and several other truly great musicians, including Sunny and Micah Nelson (aka Particle Kid). Thus the album came into being… I thought of the songs I had written as basically being pop music, but resulting from the mixture of things that influenced me — classical music (i.e. Bach and Mozart), ‘60s pop/rock (i.e. The Rolling Stones), country music (i.e. the Carter Family) and traditional American folk music (meaning mountain and southern music as well as note, sacred harp music). I had no overriding theme in mind for the album. The music and lyrics just seemed to enter me, coming from somewhere else. I find that fascinating. I followed the same pattern for writing all the songs, first the chord structure, then the melody, and finally the lyrics. It’s very fun, like putting a puzzle together.”

Each track on Some Songs is accompanied with a music video by acclaimed photographer and filmmaker, Randi Malkin Steinberger. In her words: “Matching the sophisticated simplicity of B. Wurtz’s music was the beauty and challenge of making a visual companion to Some Songs. Images gathered from my own films and found footage, as well as from short videos shot by B. on his iPod Touch under my direction, are manipulated and strung together in a layered collage of visual sentiments – mostly done while under quarantine. My studio is in the same building as The Hen House where B. and the band recorded. My husband Harlan produced the project and so I had the luxury of witnessing the album as it evolved. Images swam through my head throughout the process, leading to discussions about me creating videos. I went on to actualize 14 videos that ultimately became the video accompaniment for B.’s magical songs… What an honor it was for me to take on that challenge of making a visual companion to his music.” Watch the videos here:

Be the first to write a review

Write a Review