Perhaps best known as Vashti Bunyan’s guitarist, Glasgow’s Gareth Dickson offers a collection of live solo recordings that effectively uses environment as an accompanying instrument.
The Invisible String is plucked by an apartment lobby in Caen, France, where the majority of songs were recorded. Within this stairwell, Dickson encourages the ambiance to join him, thus creating a soothing dreamy drone that glows from his songs as he plays. The few tracks recorded elsewhere, e.g., a concert in Reims, France and an art gallery in Istanbul, blend perfectly, the warmth of the guitarist’s steel strings emanating through the performances. With compositions blending Nick Drake’s emotional candor with Roy Harper’s splendid prowess, Dickson has delivered a beautiful album built on the living, evolving dynamics of his guitar.
Folk music is meant to be intimate, the performer building a relationship with the audience as the songs weave a tapestry of the artist’s life. On Invisible String, Gareth Dickson captures this essence perfectly. Listen, just listen.
