If you’re not a morning person, we can’t think of a better way to kick off your Christmas Day than Julian Lynch’s rendition of holiday classic “O Little Town Of Bethlehem”—preferably with a strong cup of eggnog. Best known as the guitarist for Jersey-bred indie-rockers Real Estate, Lynch recorded the song for the Slow Xmas 4 compilation, which features slowed-down interpretations of classic Christmas songs.
“One thing that really drew me to the concept was the excitement of navigating the musical challenges involved in disrupting a recognizable piece of music by slowing it down to an extreme,” says Lynch. “I didn’t want to just reduce the tempo of the performance. It was important to me to introduce other music elements that could invigorate the track a little while the tune itself languidly floats by.”
Available December 15 via Bone Sound Inc., Slow Xmas 4 is the brainchild of New York City producer Ben Hosley. The concept began in 2020 as bonus content for Blank Check With Griffin & David, the acclaimed film geek’s podcast where Hosley serves as producer. Since then, it’s evolved into an annual holiday tradition that’s drawn on a diverse mix of talent, from off-center indie folk trio Heavy Gus to Speedy Ortiz founder Sadie Dupuis’ Sad13 solo project to Oscar-nominated actress Amy Irving. Aside from Lynch, this year’s comp features Chicago-based experimental multi-instrumentalist Fire-Toolz, Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner and others.
For “O Little Town Of Bethlehem,” Lynch took inspiration from his days playing in a Javanese gamelan ensemble. “There’s a concept in gamelan called irama, which is basically the density of musical material being played at any given time in a piece,” he says. “This can shift from one irama to another—kind of like gears on a bicycle. The main melody might slow down as the piece shifts from one irama to the next. As the time between notes increases, the patterns played on certain instruments might double in density to compensate for the deceleration. I tried to apply this logic in my cover.”
We’re proud to premiere Julian Lynch’s “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.”
—Hobart Rowland
