Arnold Dreyblatt - Resolve LP

While I’ve read the name Arnold Dreyblatt (born 1953, NYC) numerous times, and know to situate him somewhere near Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Steven Reich, Alvin Lucier etc I couldn’t have identified his work on a police line-up before hearing his latest album, ‘Resolve’ (Drag City, 2023) and working backwards.

Dre and his new Orchestra Of Excited Strings – Oren Ambarchi, Konrad Sprenger and Joachim Schütz – play a microtonal rock minimalism, that puts me in a similar happy headspace to Henry Flynt’s hillbilly ragas and John Cale & Terry Riley’s ‘Church of Anthrax’... some of my favourite sounds ever! .

If that’s not enough of an endorsement, sometimes the pulsing rhythms conjure the feel good sound of Reggaeton. Move over ‘Despacito’, Arnold Dreyblatt & The Orchestra Of Excited Strings is the new feelgood sound of the Southern Hemisphere summer! - Nic