Rain Painting

When guitarist John Stowell discovered that Dan Dean, who had taken on the audio mastering of one of his recordings, was also an experimental vocalist and bassist, he asked him to work together with a very open outcome. Over a year ago, new soundtracks were recorded and mixed together in Dean's studio. Once Stowell recorded the themes of his compositions on the guitar, Dean put his layered "Vocalese" or a bass line above it, and so on. In addition to various guitars and basses, percussion and drum samples were used. What sounds like the recipe for an artificial, lifeless porridge has produced a quite original and highly lively album. The unity of Stowell's ten compositions is contrasted with the diversity of the instruments and arrangement surprises. Nothing is cheap here, and Dean's scat inserts and fretless bass lines congenially merge with the exquisite melodies of Stowell's guitar. "Rain Painting" is a refined art entity with the intimacy and intensity of a live chamber music interplay.