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A Good Vintage is a collection of pieces produced utilizing only bass guitar, mostly around 2010. This assemblage is a time capsule of discovery at a time when I was looking for a way to perform as a solo artist with live looping and multiple layers. These songs are almost like little practice pieces that explore a multitude of different soundscapes and genres. Shortly after this period of my life I lost all of these projects and was left with only quick mixdowns and partial compositions. Shelved for nearly ten years, I gave these tracks a listen and decided that maybe this stuff should be heard. In fact I had never even thought of releasing any of this until last month while sorting through old emails trying to find a document. I stumbled upon a note I had written to my wife from May 11th 2008 asking her what she thought of the track I had attached. I had discovered a mixdown that I had no recollection of… cool! It ended up being the appropriately titled, May Eleventh. So, after some minor tidying up, equalizing etc., I was able to get to a point that left me satisfied enough to release this collection.
This album is also peppered with some completely unaccompanied solo bass improvisations where, as I look back, I’m glad I had the tape rolling. The fidelity on this body of work is all over the sonic map as I had a different and unique set of circumstances for every capture. For instance, on track number eleven I had tied a PZM microphone to the headstock of one of my basses with a bicycle tire tube as I was trying to get an upright bass sound. On number six I had put piccolo strings on a bass and just happened to have hit record while I was exploring an idea inspired by Benjamin Brittens "Nocturnal After John Dowland, Op. 70" A favorite of my fathers.
"A Good Vintage" is full of mistakes and imperfections that make it all the more unique and special. It’s not a virtuosic, bass shredding, jazz genius album that will change history but more of a good vintage of my ever changing artistic process and discovery.
Enjoy,
Nils
credits
releases December 18, 2020
Produced and performed by Nils Westdal
Album photo by Ben Montag

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