Mike Gangloff’s ongoing projects tend to be fitful affairs. Eight Point Star, Black Twig Pickers and Pelt each have a performance rhythm that leaves time not only for each other, but for plenty of ad hoc and occasional involvements, which in turn can beget new combos. Universal Light was born out of two of the Ironto, Va.-based fiddler’s collaborations, one with a local and the other with a out-of-towner.
Fellow Virginian Kaily Schenker is a cellist and singer who, under the name Solar Hex, explores the dark corners where classical and heavy music meet; she’s sat in with Gangloff both on record and various stages. Twelve-string guitarist Jesse Sheppard resides near Philadelphia; his own band Elkhorn, which combines cosmic jazz and Takoma school guitar playing into open-ended jams, has likewise played and recorded with Gangloff when passing through western Virginia.
The trio came together in 2024 and wasted no time in making its first LP. Universal Light was originally pressed in an edition of 100 to sell on tour, and by the end of the year, they were all gone. This second pressing should be considered an upgrade on account of a splendid new cut by John Golden, which has enriched the music’s woody textures.
You might be tempted to say that the album’s five tracks display the musicians’ common affection for American folk music. But while that’s not wrong, the core of their connection is more elemental. Most of the LP is given over to instrumentals that progress like unhurried relays, with the players taking turns casting a melody ahead of the braided ensemble sound. While the feel is rustic, the music’s form coheres on the fly, growing solid inside of a glowing halo of resonance.
It’s gorgeous, but also fleeting, because although the band’s name signals a starting point, it isn’t a constantly kept promise. The sound dims as it goes, and things take a turn when Schenker swaps her cello for a harmonium and breaks into song on the final track, “The Squirrel Is A Pretty Thing.” Her voice struggles to pry itself from the gloom of seething strings, and she adds a rarely sung verse that reframes a folk tune about various wild critters into an acknowledgment that a woman seduced by the wrong song is worse off than any animal. Light has to give darkness its turn. [VHF]
—Bill Meyer
