œconomy

When Brad Allen Williams was approached by Pete Min of Colorfield Records about creating a solo album, he was committed to discovering unexplored creative potential in the guitar–an instrument that has been (in his words) “overleveraged in the last 100 years of popular music.” The result is œconomy, a sprawling exploration of the interstices between (and intersections of) jazz, neoclassical, and experimental music.

His focus was extracting–whether through invention or recontextualization–new ideas from his primary instrument. “I'm obviously primarily a guitarist, and there's a little bit of a creative restlessness with the electric guitar in particular, because for the better part of a century now it's been strip-mined for all sorts of cultural significance,” Williams explains. “There's very little you can do on an electric guitar in 2023 that doesn't–whether intentionally or unintentionally–evoke some past cultural moment.” 

Perhaps the most intoxicating element of œconomy is that this aspiration manifests not as academic exercise, but as artistic springboard. It’s one thing to subvert tropes for novelty, but the grinding psychedelia of “Boomer” and restrained touches that accompany the fugue-like beauty of “Scape” serve excellent songwriting.

Like all Colorfield releases, œconomy was born from an improvisatory spirit that reflects the label’s mission. Showing up with no compositions was a new workflow for Williams, who nevertheless enjoyed escaping the tendency to over-refine. “It was very satisfying to watch tossed-off creative impulses develop over time,” he explains–though he did get to indulge his compositional mind with a series of lush string arrangements. Expert performances by The Section Quartet and a few virtuosic cameos by drummer Mark Guiliana represent the only instruments not played by Williams himself.

The commitment to developing first instincts results in a sincerity that’s both philosophically-engaging and whimsical. “I allowed myself to be open-minded to unfamiliar or unknown workflows,” and the results reveal an artist discovering a new aspect of his voice in live time.

-Will Schube