![]() ![]() The dynamic and titanic pieces are made all the more potent through their deft balance of restraint and willingness to dive headfirst into the unknown. Rain Shadow is the work of three singular musicians as discerning as they are inventive. Through the trio’s meticulously detailed methods, openness as players and shared vision, this seemingly disjointed process instead gave rise to invigorating new avenues of creativity. After compiling the musical dialogue for each piece, Golden Retriever and Chuck Johnson selected two songs each to arrange and mix. “Creosote Ring” sprung from Carlson’s Linnstrument controlled synthesizer mimicking vocal glissandi like an estranged cousin to Johnson’s pedal steel. The modal woodwinds of “Lupine” took shape through Sielaff’s barest playing on the album. Johnson’s extended tape loops which gently degrade with each repetition into resonant tones served as the basis for the album’s two longer pieces. Rain Shadow’s collaboration instead grew from members introducing a simple idea, as if posing a musical question which the others would respond to with recordings of their musical reactions. Previous Golden Retriever albums used their live performances as a reference point for arranging ideas. In contrast to the album’s harmonious sound, each member of the trio tracked their performance separately from one another - Johnson from his home studio in Oakland, CA, and Sielaff and Carlson each in their Portland, OR homes. The four longform pieces that comprise Rain Shadow were devised entirely remotely. With each passage the trio utilize steady, imperceptible motion akin to a desert’s wind eroding stones into new configurations. Sielaff’s increasingly distorted winds on “Sage Thrasher” gradually guide the ensemble towards the overcast deluge of the album’s second half. ![]() “Lupine” twirls baroque motifs into elastic rounds. The album’s A side evokes the beauty and solace of open spaces with lush beds of pedal steel chords and deliberate melodies traded between synthesizer and bass clarinet. Inside the wash of ever-building layers of harmony, subtle hints of movement propel them forward. Looming towers of density slowly drift from one direction to another without a predictable destination. Each piece moves with the ease and progression of a cloud formation. Rain Shadow’s title is taken from the natural phenomenon which leaves plains and shallow land just beyond mountain ranges desolate and dry. By compounding minimalist approaches into maximalist compositions, the trio evoke images of a vast open desert and a cloudless sky, the zen of a simple, clear horizon coupled with the power of the infinite. On their debut album, Rain Shadow, Golden Retriever and Chuck Johnson combine slowly shifting instrumental layers with clouds of melody and texture, punctuated by vivid emotional peaks. The combined powers of the trio is intoxicating. Chuck Johnson is a guitarist lauded for his expertise in crafting a diversity of atmospheres, be it through fingerstyle acoustic or droning pedal steel. As Golden Retriever, bass clarinetist Jonathan Sielaff and synthesist Matt Carlson erase the boundaries between their respective instruments using carefully selected effects and masterful intuitions as improvisors. “Most people will remember him as young Theo Sipowicz on ABC’s NYPD Blue and the voice of Young Jim in Disney’s Treasure Planet, but we will remember him as the caring, generous, and kindhearted individual that he was,” Philip Marcus, a director at Clear Talent Group, which represented Majors for several years, said in a statement.Golden Retriever and Chuck Johnson are artists unified by their ability to build entire ecosystems of sound. “Austin was the kind of son, brother, grandson, and nephew that made us proud and we will miss him deeply forever,” the statement said. Majors, who “loved camping and fishing,” graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and had a passion for directing and music producing, his family’s statement added. He was also active on YouTube, his sister said. The last professional credit was a guest-starring role on CBS’s How I Met Your Mother in 2009. ![]() Other shows Majors appeared on include NCIS, According to Jim and Desperate Housewives through 2007. Majors went on to appear in various television shows throughout the Noughties including appearances on ER and a two-episode arc on the Hercules miniseries as the voice of Hyllus in 2005. ![]()
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