Ryan E. Weber is something of a musical polymath. Living in both Kenya and Armenia, Weber has released music in a number of guises, collaborating over the internet with a wide array of people, including members of Shearwater, The Dirty Projectors, Owen, Volcano Choir, Mineral, Maritime, Sylvan Esso and The Delgados, to name just a few. He first came to our attention as part of dream pop duo Eric & Magill, another collaboration born of shared creative ideas and a solid internet connection, where songs honed in a back and forth between America and Kenya and formed albums as varied and interesting as Night Singers and In This Light.
The recording moniker of Weber’s solo work, REW<< has itself been the vehicle for a number of styles and sounds, with Weber’s solo visions as experimental and ambitious as any of his partnerships. Recorded in a series of hotel rooms across much of Asia, Departeures offered a subtropical and reflective slice of dream pop, while 2015’s Olive Skinned, Silver Tongued Sirens Sing Swan Songs pushed into neo-classical territory. Still, the latter employed pop sensibilities to counter the classical vibe, making for a record that blurred the distinction between avant garde experimentalism and accessible pop.
New album Les Racines Parmi Les Sabots Des Chevaux is another direction for the REW<< sound, with Weber shedding the pop aspects in favour of a pure neo-classical aesthetic. Centring the piano as the driving force, the record is a lesson in minimalism, at least when contrasted with REW<<‘s previous releases, dropping much of the dressing in favour of stark emotion. This is typified in the album’s opener ‘Victoire Impossible,’ the tone somewhere between pensive and sparkling, or perhaps both at once—concerned with the quiet beauty of things, and the process of elevating such appreciation into our everyday lives.
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The joyous finale of the opener sets the tone for the record, with tracks such as ‘Ralentissement Debout’, ‘Monde Magique et Solitaire’ and ‘Attraper un Aperçu de la Femme de la Peinture’ all finding different ways to bloom into deeper life from their minimal beginnings. Which is not to say that Weber is not equally adept at pure restraint, as highlighted by the sombre tones of ‘Équilibre’ and field recording textures of ‘Volière d’Oiseaux Sans Vol,’ but it’s clear that his tendency with this record leans toward the transcendent climax.
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Les Racines Parmi Les Sabots Des Chevaux is out now and you can get it from the REW<< Bandcamp page.