Best known for his alto sax work, Collin Sherman goes it all alone in painting a thick tapestry with instruments including (deep breath) Bb soprano clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe, keyboards, synthesizers, electric guitar and drum programming. Talk about social distancing!
The sonic result is seven tunes, ranging from 7-11 minutes, with the five movement “Rumination Suite” the centerpiece of the album. The Opus is supported mostly by a plodding and trudging drum beat, sometimes accompanied by piano, with some twangy Link Wray guitar work on the prismatic “Faults and Missteps”, long tones and bag pipe sounds on the spacey “Things Turn Around” and a dark, dank death march with piano and keys carrying the corpse on “Foundations of Serenity”. There’s an alluring brooding bass clarinet with some synth pulse and a Middle Eastern lilt to “Worthless Objects and Photographs Thereof” and the drums rumble under the thick reeds like magma on “Rival Machinations” and the rockish swing of “Phalanx Structures”. Structures of solitude.