Nashville Ambient Ensemble at Drkmttr, 12/17/2021
The Nashville Ambient Ensemble is a fascinating group for a variety of reasons. Among those: They blend the talents of numerous musicians — often as many as five or seven — in a spin on a tradition of atmospheric music-making that’s typically solitary.
The folks at the Frist Art Museum took notice of the group’s work and invited them to record musical accompaniment to Light, Space, Surface, a touring exhibit of works from the Light and Space movement that came to the Frist from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2022. Rather than taking a guided tour, museum patrons got to soundtrack their own trip through the exhibit with eight new pieces recorded by the Nashville Ambient Ensemble. The tracks feature founder, keyboardist and chief composer Michael Hix along with several returning members: singer Deli Paloma-Sisk, guitarist Jack Silverman, pianist Kim Rueger and pedal-steel wiz Luke Schneider, with the addition of Alicia Enstrom on violin. Near the end of the exhibition, the group also gave a live performance in the gallery.
Citing an overwhelmingly positive response, Hix made the call to release the recordings as a new album via outstanding indie label Centripetal Force, which released their debut Cerulean. The resulting LP Light and Space won’t be out officially until April 14, but the group is celebrating Friday, April 7, with a performance at The Blue Room at Third Man Records. The show kicks off at 8 p.m. and tickets are $12.
Meanwhile, look out below to preorder the Light and Space via the Bandcamp embed, and check out Helen Gilley’s animated video for the track “Horizon.” Keep an eye on the Nashville Ambient Ensemble Instagram profile for more updates. Also, Centripetal Force is programming shows each Sunday in April at Vinyl Tap — check out our Critics’ Pick on the Easter installment for April 9, featuring Ziona Riley, Abstract Black and Kevin Coleman.
