Rootless (or, more properly, rootless) is a solo project that's been going for better than five years now, helmed by Brooklyn's Jeremy Hurewitz.
Two types of sounds are created under this banner -- low key electronics is one, and fingerpicked acoustic guitar is the other. what the truth leaves out focuses on the latter. The shared thread between these styles is a highly personal and intimate feel. When listening to rootless, you often get the sense this is music created solely for the pleasure of the artist himself. The aura of introspection is as deep as the night, so it's possible to almost feel like a voyeur while listening in.
But hey, Jeremy sent us this stuff to hear, so we played it and asked him if he'd let us put it out, and like a true gentleman he agreed.
The music goes in a couple of directions. Some of the pieces are patchworks of small, beautiful sonic fields. They possess mixed flashes of sunlight seen through smoke and are laced together with complete melodic threads. Other pieces are less attuned to resolution. They're more like questions left unanswered, and these questions are posed in a variety of languages. You can hear bits of Chadbournian flamenco fake-outs, circular breathing as done by fingers, and even a snippet of the
wandering teacup raga if I'm not mistaken.
The music of rootless manages to communicate and keep its secrets at the same time. Even when it gets abstract, there are obvious emotions powering everything. Like private performance for the public good. I'm not sure if this is driven by altruism or sheer cussedness, but whatever the root of the rootless sound, I'm a fan.
--Byron Coley
credits
released September 9, 2022
Jeremy Hurewitz, Guitar
Mixed by Conrad Burnham
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri
Recorded in West Dover, Vermont & and Brooklyn, NY
supported by 21 fans who also own βwhat the truth leaves outβ
Long-form trance-y rhythmic jams, with a fun shambling edge, sounding like a cross between music from Africa's Sahel region crossed with a Tom Waits instrumental... Jascha Narveson
Spectral, dark-edged British folk, warped on the latter half by mesmerizing remixes. All proceeds go to Black South West Network. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 23, 2020
A lost 1992 field tape recorded by Mexican ethnomusicologist RaΓΊl GarcΓa Flores featuring a duo of Tamborileros playing a baptism ceremony. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 6, 2023
supported by 21 fans who also own βwhat the truth leaves outβ
This album makes you feel like a better world is possible and somewhat close at hand. It isn't, clearly, we're stuck in dystopia, but it's so beautiful to dream. Fabio Viola