
Gregg Belisle-Chi
I Sang to You and the Moon
Self-released
Guitarist and composer Gregg Belisle-Chi has emerged as one of the Northwest’s most creatively dexterous musicians, intuitively spanning varied scenes from improvisational chamber music to the experimental edge of pop/rock songwriting. Informed by jazz but evading direct connections and conventions, Belisle-Chi’s work shares some sonic and conceptual territory with his own recent work in Andy Clausen’s Shutter Project as well as occasional mentor Bill Frisell.
Belisle-Chi’s superb new album, I Sang to You and the Moon, builds on elements he began to explore in his 2015 debut, Tenebrae: a literary and harmonically sophisticated, almost spiritual approach to songwriting. Both albums share a patient, ethereal quality, but Tenebrae occupied a more somber and austere space, while the new album dwells in more warmly earthy realms.
Belisle-Chi’s new compositions are set to the words of iconic American poet (and folk singer) Carl Sandburg. The music explores approachable tonalities and melodies while following the contours of the words and their own peculiarly winding logic. The songs are uniformly beautiful, powerful, and memorable, whether exploring more eerie suite-like cinematic moods (“Dream Girl”) or elemental heartland trance (“Bringers”). There is something inherently powerful about a technically skilled and ambitious composer/musician applying his efforts to focusing and simplifying, as I Sang to You and the Moon poetically demonstrates.
The guitar-centered forms are embroidered with superbly sensitive collaborator contributions: Chelsea Crabtree’s powerful and intimate yet otherworldly vocals, Carmen Rothwell’s woody bass (channeling a bit of the spirit of Charlie Haden), and Raymond Larsen’s smeary, poignant trumpet.
–Andrew Luthringer