Ezra Feinberg came to our attention around 20 years ago as the leader of the San Francisco-based collective Citay, whose woozy, Beach Boys-inspired explorations were central to a psychedelic indie scene that flourished in north California at the time. In recent years he’s moved to the other side of the States and is now a practising psychoanalyst in New York’s Hudson Valley. He still makes music – this is his third solo album – although the “rock” elements have been slowly excised from his vocabulary, leaving only a trippy, hypnotic romanticism that uses acoustic guitars, electric pianos, vibraphones, flutes, harps and soft synth drones.
Feinberg was a key contributor on the Arp album Zebra in 2018, and much of Soft Power (released 31 May) draws from the same spirit – therapeutic, ambient, playfully minimal. On the opening track, Future Sand, Feinberg plays folksy clawhammer guitar while flautist David Lackner soars over the top, reminiscent of the heart-tugging bucolic beauty of John Cameron and Harold McNair’s music for Kes. Pose Beams is a piece of gently throbbing minimalism, featuring like-minded drone musicians Robbie Lee and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. The Big Clock is an eight-minute kosmiche epic, featuring the processed vocals of the operatic soprano Britt Hewitt. Best of all might be the closing track, Get Some Rest, a lovely, pastoral piece in 6/8 where Mary Lattimore’s harp weaves seamlessly with Fender Rhodes, acoustic guitar and flute.
