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Tom Carter, "Glyph"
Getting the reissue treatment is this solo album by Tom Carter of Charalambides. Dedicated to the friends and times he left behind in Austin, these are the last recordings he made before his move to the West Coast. By improvising with a different type of guitar on each of the three tracks, Carter explores the limits of each instrument while evoking the heat, pace, and vastness of Texas itself.
Common to all three is not only the warmth of Carter’s pieces, but also the way he fills the space with whatever instrument he’s playing. Carter uses a steel string acoustic guitar on “Glyph 1” to make simple statements augmented with inspired flourishes. He makes it easy to imagine a languid summer’s day both rich in the freedom it provides and yet stifling in its oppression, paradoxically providing impetus for action yet making only the most deliberate actions practical. He goes slower with a lap steel guitar on “Glyph 2,” which is by far the longest song on the album. Here he pursues resonance and drones, conjuring shimmering textures that are the musical equivalents of a heat mirage. As the song progresses, he frequently treats the guitar like a percussive instrument, culminating in a passage that sounds like he’s beating its surface in addition to the strings. “Glyph 3” features a nylon string acoustic guitar this time, a brief song that almost sounds like some sort of gypsy raga. The busiest track of the three, perhaps it reflects the energy and anxiety that goes along with moving to a new city.
Glyph is the perfect accompaniment to sitting in the shade on a hot summer’s day with a cold drink and all the time in the world before me.
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