Nashville Ambient Ensemble Listens Close in ‘Coda’

Music City is home to a broad spectrum of musicians who have a knack for experimenting with form and structure. Last winter, before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down, a slew of those folks working as the Nashville Ambient Ensemble settled in at Jeremy Ferguson’s Battle Tapes Recording. The complement includes Diatom Deli, Luke Schneider, Cynthia Cárdenas, Timon Kaple, Belly Full of Stars’ Kim Rueger and Scene contributing editor Jack Silverman, all under the direction of Michael Hix. 

Next Friday, March 19, the result of their efforts will be released via Mike Mannix’s Centripetal Force as Cerulean, a collection of six collaborative pieces. Today, we’re very pleased to premiere an animated visual by Tyler Blankenship for “Coda,” the ethereal closing track on the record. Blankenship you’ll know as a member of Neon Black and the chief of the Circuit Benders’ Ball, the online 2021 edition of which runs March 12-13.

In an email, Michael Hix explains that the idea for the piece came during an exploratory jam he and Kaple had circa April 2019. Not long after, the two decided to develop the Nashville Ambient Ensemble as a project.

“While some of the other pieces on the album have the group going in the round with designated solo sections, this one is more fluid and we played together,” writes Hix. “This take was the very last take of the recording sessions, and I think you can hear how relaxed and comfortable everyone is. One of the things we tried hard to do in the sessions was to listen closely to one another, and I think that effort comes through here in the interlocking guitars and the ebb and flow between the vocals and pedal steel.”

Check it out above and preorder the record via the Bandcamp embed below. Also, follow the ensemble on Instagram for more updates and a heap of behind-the-scenes photos from the recording sessions.