John Vanderslice White Wilderness

• Sea Salt
• Convict Lake
• White Wilderness
• The Piano Lesson
• After It Ends
• Overcoat
• Alemany Gap
• English Vines
• 20K

White Wilderness promises a new kind of magic from the pop perfectionist known for submitting tracks to endless tweaking in his San Francisco studio, Tiny Telephone. John Vanderslice teamed with 19 members of the Bay Area’s Magik*Magik Orchestra, directed by Minna Choi, to record this entire album live in just three days. Choi’s orchestral arrangements are brisk but warmly enveloping, an intoxicating backdrop to Vanderslice’s compelling, sincere songwriting. The onus of producing the album was handed over to John Congleton.

The album’s first single, “Sea Salt,” premiered on NPR’s All Songs Considered. Its loping rhythm is caressed by a swooping string melody and Vanderslice’s patient, briny croon; it’s a good indicator for the elegant symbiosis of the collaboration.

Abstract by Elisabeth Fertig