Big Ship, The – “A Circle Is Forever” – [Hausu Mountain]

Naysayer   5/8/2013   A Library, CD

Doug Kaplan and Aeron Small, two guitarists who have known each other for a long time, collaborated on this, their first work under the name of The Big Ship. It’s a very well executed series of songs filled with looping guitar segments, the sound of old typewriters, wind, electronic scratchy noises, plunking acoustic guitar and a few vocals. You get the picture. It sounds midwest to me. Not sure why. It just does. These are rich orchestrations of melodic sounds, quiet but not sleepy, full but not overwhelming. They’re challenging but they are not going to rip your ear off. It’s more of a soothing challenge. It’s nice. And creative. And pleasant. And not perfect but that’s okay. I think you will be happily surprised if you try it.