Tyler, William - Secret Stratosphere (Swirl of Orange, Red and Yellow 2LP Vinyl)

William Tyler - Secret Stratosphere (Swirl of Orange, Red and Yellow 2LP Vinyl)

William Tyler’s songcraft was forged in the South, but it needed space to grow, so he set his sights on the West like so many musical pioneers before him. The music of the Nashville-born, Los Angeles-based guitarist now evokes the desert vistas of the Southwest as much as the flatlands of Middle Tennessee, but there’s also a sparseness in keeping with the stretched-out landscapes and wide sky.

The sense of isolation central to works like 2020’s New Vanitas and 2021’s “Frozen Shelter,” a 40-minute ambient composition that owes as much to the Caretaker as the KLF’s Chill Out, was inevitably influenced by the pandemic, and Tyler’s work has since tilted back toward collaboration. Secret Stratosphere, a new live album recorded in Huntsville, Alabama in 2021, is his first record credited to a full band, dubbed the Impossible Truth.

Track-listing:

1.  Our Lady of the Desert
2. Highway Anxiety / Radioactivity
3. Whole New Dude
4. I'm Gonna Live Forever (If It Kills Me)
5. Gone Clear
6. We Can't Go Home Again
7. Area Code 601