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Carl Hultgren, "Tomorrow"
Most of Carl's first solo album perversely sounds almost exactly like what I would expect it to sound like: a Windy & Carl album without Windy.  On one hand, that is a little disappointing, as it would have been interesting to hear a completely different side of Hultgren's artistry and this material probably could have been the start to yet another great collaboration.  On the other hand, Carl's languorous, shimmering guitar passages have always been my favorite part of Windy & Carl's music and now I get an uninterrupted two-hour deluge of them.  Though the presence of a vocalist would have added some nice contrast and variety, Tomorrow is still strewn with more than enough dreamy beauty and understated masterpieces to work quite nicely on its own.
Actually, I suppose it may be a bit of an oversimplification to say that this album sounds almost exactly like an entirely instrumental Windy & Carl album: there are some significant differences, but I think they will only be apparent to the most serious of fans.  The most prominent one is that most of these twelve pieces feel a bit simpler, more fragile, and more understated that most of Windy & Carl's work.It almost seems like some pieces were real-time, "live" recordings of just Carl and his guitar, but they were not: Hultgren is just extremely nuanced in his layering this time around and Tomorrow's unhurried spaciousness is entirely by design, though it sometimes yields mixed results.  The other key differences are a bit more isolated and aberrant.  On "Hidden," for example, Hultgren unexpectedly augments his quavering, oceanic droning with field recordings of hisses, dripping water, and something that sounds like a light rain on a tin roof.  On another piece, "In This Land," Carl approximates a woozy and blurry twist on '70s country rock.
In general, however, Tomorrow’s songs fall into one of two styles: warm, shimmering layers of droning guitars or slow-motion chord progressions of chorused strums or arpeggios.  In both cases, Carl augments those foundations with subtle synth and processed guitar coloration.  To my ears, the dronier pieces feel like the more successful ones, as the more song-like ones often feel a bit too naked without vocals. Tomorrow’s 17-minute centerpiece, "Transparency and Light," does not quite fall into either category, however, as it sometimes eschews any kind of foundation at all.  Instead, Carl unspools a slow-motion almost-melody of melancholy synth or EBow swells that is organically embellished with subtle washes of guitar.  It is an absolutely beautiful and unique piece and goes a long way towards explaining why Carl wanted to release a solo album in the first place: the magic of "Transparency" lies entirely in its nakedness and fragility and any addition at all would have broken the slow-motion, hypnotic reverie.  Also, more than any other piece, "Transparency" evokes the album's stated inspiration: Carl's change in mindset after moving into a lovely old house surrounded by old trees.  If there can be an audio equivalent to sunlight flickering through gently swaying branches, this is probably it.
Notably, the CD and vinyl versions of Tomorrow are augmented with an additional six songs.  One is an instrumental version of Windy & Carl's recent "I Walked Alone" single that I probably could do without (the original is better).  The other five pieces are all surprisingly good for bonus tracks though.  A few are alternate versions of songs that made the album and a few are just untitled outtakes, but all could have probably been seamlessly inserted into the proper album.  In fact, a couple of them (the tambourine version of "Ledge" and the ambitiously expanded version of "Found My Home") might even be better than the versions that made the album (particularly the latter).
As alluded to earlier, all of that adds up to a veritable avalanche of twinkling, quasi-shoegaze bliss.  Most of it is good, some of it is great, and cumulatively it is a bit overwhelming (albeit in a good way).  As far as complete albums/artistic statements go, Tomorrow feels much more like an enjoyable and occasionally sketch-like side project than a true highlight in Hultgren's discography, but the epic "Transparency" is as essential as anything Carl has recorded to date and the extended version of "Found My Home" is not far behind.
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