Artist Led, Creatively Driven
VERTIGINOUS CANYONS
Andy Summers
Release Date: June 21st
ORC100322
Vertiginous Canyons
Andy Summers (1942-)
1. Blossom
2. Canyon
3. Village
4. Out of the Shadows
5. Translucent
6. Reflex
7. Blur
8. Into the Blue
Legendary British guitarist Andy Summers releases his latest EP, “Vertiginous Canyons” with Blue Cloud Music on the summer solstice, June 21st, 2024.
Summers is one of the most celebrated guitarists of our time, known as a member of one of the most influential and acclaimed groups in musical history, The Police.
Following the 2023 publication of a volume of photographs titled “A Series of Glances”, heralded as “perhaps Andy Summers’ most personal work ever”, each track on the EP constitutes an audiovisual snapshot, and accompanies one of the photos from the collection.
After decades of success in the two parallel art forms of photography and music, Andy Summers is, for the first time, bringing the two pathways together for a release in 2024.
A mainstay of rock for over five decades and a seasoned visual artist, the reimagining of Summers’ own photography through musical snapshots is at the core of this new project, Vertiginous Canyons. This has been a novel undertaking, both in terms of the idiom and process, never having been asked to make musical sketches to visuals before Summers deviates to a more ambient and reflective musical language which draws on his background in classical guitar. The result: an innately “Andy Summers” collection of music to accompany his own shots – written, recorded and produced by himself. Ambience and texture are as important to the new work as rhythm and harmony, as the tracklist offers a sonorous and immersive listening experience with the music and photographs enhancing one another in tandem.
“This recording, Vertiginous Canyons, came about in a way somewhat different from my normal process,” says Summers. “I received a request from teNeues, the publisher of my photography book A Series of Glances, asking if I could create a few tracks to accompany the pages in the book. Interesting – never have done that before! I thought it should be something free flowing, improvised much in the spirit of the photography itself. Therefore, I projected photographs from the book onto a screen and played through various devices and sounds for two or three hours and found my way into the tracks here. This approach seemed to be a truthful way to marry the camera and the guitar – photography and music.”
Improvisation, raw inspiration, and decades of mastery of the guitar combine in the genesis of Vertiginous Canyons.
Modern day renaissance man, Andy Summers – musician, composer, photographer, guitarist, documentarian, and author – is most known as a member of one of the most influential and acclaimed acts in musical history, The Police. With a catalog that has sold more than 75 million records worldwide and spawned multiple chart toppers including “Every Breath You Take,” “Can’t Stand Losing You,” “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic,” just to name a few, as well as four of their five studio albums making Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, The Police continue to be one of the most important acts in music history. Summers is a five-time Grammy® winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and has spent the past five decades performing live to audiences across the globe. Summers has released multiple solo projects in recent years as well as collaborations with John Etheridge, Robert Fripp, Fernanda Takai, Ben Verdery, and Victor Biglione. In 2007, The Police reunited for a 14-month global tour becoming one of the highest grossing tours of all time. In recent years Summers has become a noted author including the 2006 release of his memoir, One Train Later (St. Martin’s Publishing Group), the inspiration for his 2012 documentary film, Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police, and his first work of fiction released in 2021, Fretted and Moaning: Short Stories (Rocket 88). Summers has also found sanctuary behind the lens as a noted photographer who specializes in capturing a mood, an expression, or a location in striking black and white, with book releases including the stunning Desirer Walks the Streets (Nazraeli Press), I’ll Be Watching You (Taschen), and The Bones of Chuang Tzu (Steidl), and most recently, A Series of Glances (teNeues), while continuing to curate exhibits around the globe including Leica Gallery in Los Angeles, Paris/LA Independent Photo Show, Kunst, Licht Gallery in Shanghai, and more. Summers is the recipient of the prestigious Chevalier De L’Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture in France. Summers is currently doing select dates on his The Cracked Lens + A Missing String tour visiting intimate theatres incorporating his collective works into an insightful evening spanning his career where he plays guitar and improvises to several sequences of his photography, reads excerpts from his book of short stories, and shares insights on his music and photography.
For more information, please visit www.andysummers.com.
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