Elkhorn
ElkHorn (Independent)

Despite butting up against the snowy barrier of the Coast Range, Vancouver has developed a kind of distant-horizons improv sound, likely godfathered by Hornby Island guitarist Tony Wilson and enlarged upon by cellist Peggy Lee’s sextet and the Juno winners in Pugs & Crows, among others.

There’s an oceanic swell to much of this music, and that continues on in Tom Wherrett’s band, ElkHorn—except that the rolling seas this guitarist envisions in his mind’s eye are the grassy plains and wooded foothills of his native Nebraska.

Here, on the quintet’s undeniably gorgeous debut, a gentle twang infuses opener “One for E.S.”, which manages to be both folkishly open-hearted and harmonically sophisticated—a pleasing duality that also animates Wherrett’s recursive but essentially optimistic solo.

That play between the beautiful and the bittersweet is ElkHorn’s central characteristic, and reaches its apogee in final track “War Path”, which sets Meredith Bates’s fluttering violin and Sam Davidson’s bass clarinet against Mike Magnusson’s rolling drums and a sturdy bass line from Russell Scholberg. 

In “Debris”, however, Wherrett blends pointillistic postrock with elements of Third Stream jazz, while the ballad “Beneath My Brain” unveils the guitarist’s introspective side. “Dark Clouds”, unsurprisingly, explores more psychologically fraught terrain, but even that is shot through with beams of big-sky sunlight, and eventually rises to almost ecstatic heights.

Impeccable musicianship, cleverly layered compositions, and a lot of heart make Wherrett’s music both adventurous and accessible—never the easiest thing to accomplish, but it’s done with aplomb in ElkHorn’s impressive first offering.