Places of Consequence

Knowler’s first full-length solo album offers 14 carefully considered and compelling songs that merge traditional folk with modern sensibilities. Spending his childhood in Texas and Arizona, Knowler found bluegrass at a young age and later studied jazz. A multi-instrumentalist and renowned guitar player, his resistance to generic moulds permeate through this album.

Rooted in the American West tracks like ‘Sonora Road’ and ‘Don Bishop’ have a distinctly bluegrass sound, and the use of banjo in ‘Cat Spring’ brings depth and atmosphere. Experimental miniatures like ‘Supertone Biome’ punctuate the album, their stark spaciousness repositioning the listener in a refreshing way against the surrounding fingerstyle virtuosity. Similarly, ‘Motoring Addiction’ with its electric cinematic quality and expert use of space, could find itself on a Tarantino soundtrack. The album finishes with ‘Kuyina’, a tribute to his late mother, which has a deep felt sense of emotional consideration. Using space and nimble finger-picking to act as a transportive vessel, the album explores the intersection of musical identity, location and sound. On an album that is a meeting between the lonesomeness of Appalachian folk traditions and an experimental usage of silence and space Knowler finds fruitful creative terrain in the place between.