Roy Montgomery - Suffuse (2018)

Vinyl LP

2018 album by celebrated New Zealand guitarist legend (Pin Group, Dadamah, Dissolve) who in the past 40 years has released records on Flying Nun, Kranky, Drunken Fish and VHF. Includes vocal contributions from Haley Fohr (Circuit Des Yeux), Julianna Barwick, Liz Harris (Grouper), Katie Von Schleicher, Purple Pilgrims (Clementine and Valentine Adams) and She Keeps Bees (Jessica Larrabee). Despite praise and acclaim throughout his career, Roy Montgomery hates his singing. From his point of view, it’s done out of necessity, when he doesn’t have anyone else around to substitute. Is it a surprise he jumped at the idea of composing an album for other vocalists?

This began as a series of alternate takes of the material on Tropic Of Anodyne, the tracks with vocals off his last release. That concept morphed into assembling vocalists to sing on new songs, and he conceived instrumental material that would fit each singer. Half of the songs came together, resulting in Suffuse. These compositions generously embrace their guest leaders, and for the first time in his career, Roy Montgomery has made a cogent artistic argument as to why he shouldn’t be singing these songs himself.