The North Carolina trio Setting brings together three phenomenal underground music veterans. Multi-instrumentalist Nathan Bowles, a master of rustic acoustic music who has played with bands like Pelt and Black Twig Pickers and backed up artists like Joan Shelley and Jake Xerxes Fussell among his many combos and solo ventures, goes electric here. He's joined by Jaime Fennelly, the synth master who records as Mind Over Mirrors, and Joe Westerlund, the drummer/percussionist whose affiliations include Megafaun, Califone, and the Dead Tongues. This is just the abbreviated version of their collective resumé, which is expansive and impressive.
So is the music they make. Setting's self-titled debut, out in April on Thrill Jockey, comprises five adventurous instrumentals that evolved from improvisation into orchestrated worlds brimming with life. "This is one of the most joyous albums I've made with other musicians. It felt like we were all in the slipstream," Fennelly says in a press release. Bowles adds, "Making this is maybe the easiest thing in my life; it's not struggle music. This collaboration feels like it’s just coming out of the air, like it’s breathing."
The percolating nine-minute opener "Heard A Bubble," out now, will get you on their wavelength; listen below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Heard a Bubble"
02 "Gum Bump"
03 "What Kind of Fish Is A Turtle"
04 "Ribbon Of Moss"
05 "Derring-do"
TOUR DATES:
03/28 - Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
05/12 - Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor
05/15 - Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom
05/16 - Asheville, NC @ AyurPrana Listening Room
06/26-28 - North Adams, MA @ Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival @ MASS MoCA
Setting is out 4/24 on Thrill Jockey. Pre-order it here. Presumably "Gum Bump" is about the influx of sales and streams that follows when this website heralds your music.
