Released in 2019 on Yegg Records
Format: LP
Overview
Innovative guitarist and producer, Dave Harrington (Darkside), uses his latest group record to explore the outer reaches of improvisation and compositional post-production. Pure Imagination, No Country is jazz-rock fusion stripped of its retro connotations—fusing hard grooves, free flights of collective improvisation, unrestrained shredding, and futuristic ambience to create something that is at turns atmospheric and in your face. The ambient production clearly recalls that of the great ECM Records, while Harrington’s playing often channels that labels’ legendary guitarists, namely Terje Rypdal in the shreddier climaxes and Bill Frisell in the more plaintive and beautiful moments (such as that closing track, yes, it is that song from Willy Wonka). Yet no matter how great Harrington’s playing, an improvisational album like this couldn’t be successful without the essential contributions of sympathetic collaborators, which Harrington finds with drummer Samer Ghadry and Andrew Fox on synth/keys, and even expands to include instrumentalists such as Jake Falby on violin and Will Shore on vibraphone for some of the record’s most powerful moments.
