Biography
Originating from Fredericksburg, Virginia, Daniel Bachman functions as a masterful American fingerstyle guitarist who simultaneously pursues experimental music and field recording. He applies the label “psychedelic Appalachia” to his method, a sound that surfaces throughout the cassettes and limited-edition vinyl titles he began issuing at age 17, among them Grey-Black-Green, Oh Be Joyful, and the joint project Of Deathly Premonitions with Ryley Walker. After the two Tompkins Square albums Seven Pines in 2012 and Jesus I'm a Sinner in 2013, Bachman enlarged his palette to incorporate multiple Southern blues idioms, ragtime, raga, and deep folk, a development made plain on the 2015 solo-guitar release River.
Bachman took up guitar before turning ten and absorbed the influences of banjo traditions, drone textures, and the American Primitive idiom first mapped by John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Peter Lang, and other Takoma Records artists, as well as Glenn Jones and Jack Rose, the last of whom also came from Fredericksburg. Already a prodigy, he began touring—frequently alongside Rose—while still enrolled in high school.
His first recordings, Apparitions at the Kenmore Plantation and Feast of the Green Corn, appeared in 2010 as self-released cassettes under the name Sacred Harp; both merged the American Primitive style with experimental drones and psychedelic elements. In 2011 he issued the split cassette Of Deathly Premonitions with guitarist Ryley Walker on Plus Tapes and the solo Grey-Black-Green on Debacle. The following year he collaborated with fellow Virginian, vanguard composer and multi-instrumentalist Ian G. McColm, on the album Taman Shud.
Bachman joined the Tompkins Square roster in 2012. His label debut, Seven Pines, adopted a markedly traditional stance and received worldwide praise; the 2013 follow-up Jesus I'm a Sinner earned comparable acclaim, establishing him on club stages and securing prominent slots at folk and experimental festivals. In 2014 he released Orange Co. Serenade on Bathetic and a self-titled collection on Lancashire & Somerset.
River, a double album tracked by Brian Haran at Pinebox in North Carolina and mastered by Patrick Klem, earned an NPR First Listen feature and appeared on Three Lobed Recordings in spring 2015. A year later the same label issued a self-titled seven-track set recorded by Haran; on that date Bachman, also credited with shruti box, received selective accompaniment from Forrest Marquisee on “octotone.” The record surfaced in early November. Shortly afterward Bachman ended his multi-year stay in North Carolina’s Triangle region and returned to Virginia. Although he continued limited touring, he devoted much of the ensuing period to reflection on his prior work and on developments in the United States following Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, while tracing the evolving character of his own music. The resulting project assembled nearly every element he had previously employed—field recordings, ghostly AM radio transmissions, drones, and sparse, spiky guitar lines—in an effort to dissolve genre distinctions. Morning Star, comprising seven long-form pieces that range from side-long drone compositions and ensemble works to atmospheric solo meditations and more conventional material, was recorded with a small circle of collaborators and issued by Three Lobed in mid-summer 2018.
Bachman took up guitar before turning ten and absorbed the influences of banjo traditions, drone textures, and the American Primitive idiom first mapped by John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Peter Lang, and other Takoma Records artists, as well as Glenn Jones and Jack Rose, the last of whom also came from Fredericksburg. Already a prodigy, he began touring—frequently alongside Rose—while still enrolled in high school.
His first recordings, Apparitions at the Kenmore Plantation and Feast of the Green Corn, appeared in 2010 as self-released cassettes under the name Sacred Harp; both merged the American Primitive style with experimental drones and psychedelic elements. In 2011 he issued the split cassette Of Deathly Premonitions with guitarist Ryley Walker on Plus Tapes and the solo Grey-Black-Green on Debacle. The following year he collaborated with fellow Virginian, vanguard composer and multi-instrumentalist Ian G. McColm, on the album Taman Shud.
Bachman joined the Tompkins Square roster in 2012. His label debut, Seven Pines, adopted a markedly traditional stance and received worldwide praise; the 2013 follow-up Jesus I'm a Sinner earned comparable acclaim, establishing him on club stages and securing prominent slots at folk and experimental festivals. In 2014 he released Orange Co. Serenade on Bathetic and a self-titled collection on Lancashire & Somerset.
River, a double album tracked by Brian Haran at Pinebox in North Carolina and mastered by Patrick Klem, earned an NPR First Listen feature and appeared on Three Lobed Recordings in spring 2015. A year later the same label issued a self-titled seven-track set recorded by Haran; on that date Bachman, also credited with shruti box, received selective accompaniment from Forrest Marquisee on “octotone.” The record surfaced in early November. Shortly afterward Bachman ended his multi-year stay in North Carolina’s Triangle region and returned to Virginia. Although he continued limited touring, he devoted much of the ensuing period to reflection on his prior work and on developments in the United States following Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, while tracing the evolving character of his own music. The resulting project assembled nearly every element he had previously employed—field recordings, ghostly AM radio transmissions, drones, and sparse, spiky guitar lines—in an effort to dissolve genre distinctions. Morning Star, comprising seven long-form pieces that range from side-long drone compositions and ensemble works to atmospheric solo meditations and more conventional material, was recorded with a small circle of collaborators and issued by Three Lobed in mid-summer 2018.
Albums
