Suoni Review: Elfin Saddle & Friends…

I was pleased to discover upon arriving at Casa Del Popolo this past Wednesday that the Marissa Nadler cancellation had opened up a spot for some good friends of mine to play at the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival this year. For what was billed as a Rotating Sphere and The Festering Gases presentation, we were treated to hear several short improvisational sets by local musicians Alden Penner, Nick Keupfer, Nader Hassan, Marcus Lobb, Nick Prescott along with Elfin Saddle members Emi Honda & Jordan McKenzie. These guys put together a last minute show despite the circumstances and managed to provide an evenings worth of memorable music…

The first set paired sculptor, taxidermist, and child prodigy Nader Hassan along with guitarist Nick Keupfer (Echoes Still Singing Limbs, L’Embuscade) for a classical and steel-string guitar duet. The two have been working on the material for this project for a short time, yet the spontaneity of the new material provided a genuine feeling, and from their performance you would think these guys had definitely worked out the material together in great detail. The compositions were dynamic and contained tight changes with intricate arrangements, cued by one or the other musician during the set, executed with style and grace.

Marcus Lobb (Burial Song) and Nick Prescott took the stage next for some americana style steel-string guitar playing. Their music evokes the spirit of players such as John Fahey or Jack Rose and has a delicacy rarely found in acoustic music these days. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Nick and Marcus play a set in the past to a small loft party audience, and they were able to achieve the same intimacy at Casa as they did that evening at the loft. Beautiful tumbling arpegios played by metal finger picks, accompanied by soft flesh-plucked melodies with timings that helped structure each song and give them a unique shape.

I was pleased to have another opportunity to watch Alden Penner (The Unicorns, Clues) play a set. Last I saw Penner was at the Save Frosty the Snowman benefit show with fellow collaborator Brendan Reed, both dressed in capes and casting a spell over the audience with their improvisational guitar and spoken words. This set was much more personal and included several compositions of his own with singing and self-accompanyment on the classical guitar. There is an honesty found in Penner’s music that I have not seen in many performances; perhaps it is a sheer simplicity that he takes in his approach to writing and performing that makes him such an interesting musician to watch.

Shortly afterwards, Elfin Saddle members Emi Honda and Jordan McKenzie joined on stage along with Marcus Lobb to perform a combination of Elfin Saddle songs, Alden Penner songs and improvisational material. These guys had a chemistry that could only be found between good friends and they were completely present for each other throughout the entire set. The songs unfolded as if they had been playing in a band together for years, and it was hard to imagine some of the Elfin Saddle numbers being played any other way. The improvisation and spontaneous playing was completely in the moment, especially a piece that was composed during a last minute accordion repair session in which Alden Penner read items from a “to do” list out of his agenda while the other musicians made up some music to play in the background.

Looking back at how this evening could have been completely lost due to the last minute cancellation of Marissa Nadler and Picastro, I must give kudos to the Suoni festival staff and the members of Elfin Saddle for rounding up some of the finest improvisers/ artists/ players the city has to offer and putting together a charming show. KUDOS!!