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Stop Everything and Listen: Sightseeing by Aaron Fisher and Rob Stephenson

I’ve seen lots of music blogs come and go in the time I’ve been writing Independent Clauses. Lots of things happen to kill a blog: people get too busy with day-job work, people stop listening to the music they used to cover, people burn out, life changes happen, people move on to other interests, cofounders quit, sometimes you get DDOS’ed by Grimes. You know. Things happen.

Anyway, we turn 19 on May 15, 2022. We are not going anywhere. We are still here. It does look a bit quiet right now, but I’m here to say that you shouldn’t worry. The thing is this: even though we have only posted four times since March 1, I have been listening to new music every day. Lisa has been listening to stuff too! Things happen. But! Not blog-ending things. Just stuff.

I say all this by way of apology to Aaron Fisher and Rob Stephenson. Honestly, a huge chunk of the music I have been listening to daily has been Sightseeingthe duo’s debut collaboration. Last.FM (yes, I still use this service) reports that I have listened to this album more than 20 times, which is frankly an enormous amount for me before writing about it. (Four, maybe five times is usual.) Given that I’ve listened to it roughly five times more than I usually do before writing about a thing, it is safe to assume that I like it much more than the usual album review here. Sightseeing is a balm; it’s nine pieces of calm in a ludicrously uncalm world; it’s a rest for the spirit; it’s a collection of carefully turned beauty. It’s astonishing.

Fisher and Stephenson’s pieces offer up acoustic guitars, electric guitars, percussion, horns, and other bits that are easily recognizable as Americana. Yet these instrumentals are far from the standard fare–not by ethos, but by quality. Each of these tracks are enveloping, immersive songs that wash over the listener whether you’re using headphones, car stereos, house stereos, phone speakers, you name it. The deeply felt pieces here translate no matter what level of fidelity you’re working with. (I have, as you may have guessed, listened to Sightseeing on all of those types of speakers.)

Opener “Blue Jay – Blue Night” is a beautiful opening statement, a cascading series of acoustic guitar runs that warm my soul and pedal steel notes that offer a floating glory. The piece will catch the ear of any Americana purist but also those who love meditative music; SUSS fans and Fahey fans can get together on it. “Riconoscere” is my personal favorite, a mellifluously developed piece that revels in its own beauty. It reminds me of Ezra Feinberg’s slowly-unfolding pieces. “Louie” moves in a similar direction, opening with thirty seconds of gentle mood-setting percussion before ambling elegantly onward. (Yes, you can amble elegantly.) The five-minute “Merino Ghost” splits the difference between Low Anthem-style immaculate folk and jazz; the results are stunning.

I could keep going on this record, but I don’t want to ruin all the surprises that this duo has for the listener. This whole collection is just outstanding, beautiful, wonderful. It’s a stop-everything-and-listen recommendation from me, the sort of (gentle) lightning in a bottle that doesn’t come around that often. Wow. Highly recommended.