Robert Stillman - What Does It Mean to Be American? (2022) [Official Digital Download]

Margate-based US multi-instrumentalist Robert Stillman ruminates on what it is to be an ex-patriot American after 10 years in blighty, set to smoky (and free) jazz-blues piano and new agey chamber styles.

“What Does it Mean to Be American? is the eighth solo album by Margate, UK based composer & multi-instrumentalist Robert Stillman. Performed, recorded & mixed almost entirely by Stillman, the seven tracks on What Does it Mean to Be American? are experimental in the purest sense of the word; Stillman's composition & recording techniques rely heavily on improvisation, which often sends his music in surprising directions. Elements of jazz, drone, funk, blues, psychedelia, new age & chamber music are referenced, often subconsciously, but Stillman's music ultimately defies adherence to any particular genre.

Stillman explains:

"The musical content of this work is varied, partly due to its having been recorded over a long period of time, and also due to the attitude I brought to curating the work, i.e. removing any sense of filter on the creative impetus. Much of this work was made very quickly and intuitively; the idea was to remove as many barriers as possible between gut-level expressions and the sound result, to essentially dream these tracks directly into existence.

"This music, like much of my other recorded output, is the product of a solo studio process that involves extensive layering of multi-track recordings of me playing various instruments (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, piano and drums)."

What Does it Mean to Be American?'s one guest performance comes from Anders Holst (Stillman's collaborator in the Bog Bodies project), who contributes acoustic guitar to the album's closing track, "No Good Old Days."

While What Does it Mean to Be American? is a mostly instrumental work (only the opening track, "Cherry Ocean," features Stillman's singing voice), a strong narrative carries through the album, namely Stillman's examination of his nationality.”

Tracklist:
1. Cherry Ocean (08:34)
2. It's All Is (02:39)
3. Self-Image (04:43)
4. Acceptance Blues (05:03)
5. What Does It Mean to Be American? (04:29)
6. Deep Time, U.S.A. (04:54)
7. No Good Old Days (05:13)


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