In the rarest of cases, more really is more: Scott Pinkmountain’s The Full Sun blends improvisation and avant composition with classic song writing and more musicality per square inch than most box sets. Using upwards of 60 musicians, including a full orchestra, an eleven-piece big band and numerous experimental hybrids, Pinkmountain channels music with freedom, precision and raw earthy emotion. In the process of creating this opus, he also draws an arc of dissolving love. The record begins with romantic euphoria, and over the course of the hour, takes us through a downward spiral into a bleak vacuum of betrayal. The centerpiece of this turmoil is revealed in the song ‘Unforgiven’, which stretches out over a pained landscape and ends with a bold cinematic march of redemption.
The Full Sun is a story of artistic, as well as personal transformation. Before changing his name, Scott Rosenberg carved out a successful career as avant composer and free jazz saxophonist who worked with the likes of Anthony Braxton and other pioneers of modern music. He has been called ‘one of the best creative saxophonists in America’ by the All Music Guide, and is a founding member of the psych band Pinkmountain, which includes Sam Coomes (Quasi, Elliot Smith) and Gino Robair (Tom Waits, Thinking Fellers Union). The only problem with this trajectory is that through all his explorations, Rosenberg turned his back on his first musical love: songs.
The metamorphosis began five years ago when Scott adopted Pinkmountain as his last name. He formed the band PAF with two other Mills College grads who shared his mission to combine their avant training with American roots song writing. Together they recorded Fingerprints, Medicine in 2006 and Phoenix in 2007, before disbanding in 2008. But rather than closing the door, Pinkmountain set his sights on a bigger goal. He swept up the broken pieces of his band and spent six months with engineer Eli Crews (Deerhoof, Why?) assembling a mighty and emotionally fractured mosaic called The Full Sun.
The Full Sun:
1. Song of Solomon
2. I Shall Not Be Released
3. Solar Flare
4. Lucy
5. Supernova
6. Abyssinia
7. Unforgiven
8. Sundowning
9. You Gave Me This
10. Dusk
11. Angel Of Death
12. To Love Is To Die