Open Door Policy, the forthcoming album from Alexei Shishkin, is a record long in the making. Shishkin penned the majority of the tracks back in 2020, and by the spring of 2021 had recorded them at the Big Nice Studio in Lincoln, Rhode Island with Bradford Krieger. Further recording sessions the following year produced a few more songs, then in 2023 Shishkin and Krieger again returned to the studio to polish and add final flourishes. This month will eventually see the album released via Candlepin Records, more or less four years since its initial inception, and its final form suggests the slow method of making music might just be a path others would do well to follow. “And if it takes a little time,” as Shishkin sings on single ‘Autobahn’, “Well, I’ve got minutes like the autobahn’s got miles.”
We shouldn’t be surprised to find Alexei Shishkin doing things a little differently. The self-described “label’s nightmare’ never plays live, preferring to instead channel his energies into pure creativity. Which isn’t to say he lives an entirely reclusive practice. Open Door Policy saw a host of collaborators help bring it to life, with Graham W. Bell (guitar, backing vocals), Dave Kahn (bass), Ian Dwy (drums), Bill Waters (guitar, keys), Ivan Rodriguez (sax), Eyal Sela (clarinet, sax) and the aforementioned Krieger (production, guitar, backing vocals, drums) all lending their talents across the album. The result is as inventive as it is relaxed, the whole thing buoyed by a sense of patience and curiosity as it explores whatever avenue seems appropriate.
‘Bermuda’, as we put it in a preview “offers a glimpse of what to expect, combing lap steel and nylon guitar into something full of bright rhythm, while Shiskin’s slightly wry vocals add an almost Berman-esque tone.” While latest single ‘Rose Gold’ follows with another languid rhythm. Channelling the chilled jams of The Grateful Dead and Springsteen at his most playful, the song champions the unhurried spirit so central to the record, and shows how singular artists like Alexei Shishkin can hold the torch for doing things in just the way which suits you.
Album art “Sleep” by Odilon Redon (1898) courtesy of The Met