With a day job as an indie rocker (cf. Sharpie Smile and Kamikaze Palm Tree), Cole Berliner might not be expected to make a solo album like The Black Door. But the California guitarist takes a page from the book of musician/composers like William Tyler and Hayden Pedigo, delivering acoustic guitar-centered instrumentals with a cinematic bent.
Though clearly skilled, Berliner eschews displays of technical virtuosity in favor of creating wordless experiences using melody and ambience. “Bongo Syndicate” and the title track, for example, sound like the best kind of incidental music – memorable enough to be enjoyed on their own, but equally adept at providing accompaniment for moving images, even if those images are only in one’s mind. “Country Tea” and “A Western Sun” ground themselves in American roots sounds, updating the so-called American Primitive aesthetic with a side of Leon Redbone whimsy. “Cathedral” adds electric guitar, piano, saxophone, and a slightly Middle Eastern melody for an exercise in unfolding acid haze, while “Bugle Call” draws on minimalist classical music for a hypnotic, circular tune like a waking dream. The gentle sparkle of “Death of Stars” ends the record with a chamber musical lullaby.
Though Berliner likes to wander around his musical impulses, his sense of melody and fingerpicking acumen stitch it all together into a singular vision. If painterly filmmakers or authors in need of CD companions to novels don’t start filling Berliner’s inbox thanks to The Black Door, the world has gone crazier than we thought.
