Here’s a surefire hit for numbing the noise of relatives, unsolicited advice, and incessant Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday sales. Centered around the solemn motifs of composer David Moore—and taken to transcendent heights by a tight-knit quartet (bassists Greg Chudzik and Jeff Ratner, clarinetist Jeremy Viner, and tape manipulator Mike Effenberger)—No Home of the Mind is yet another leap forward for Bing & Ruth after several essential stunners for RVNG Intl. (City Lake, Tomorrow Was the Golden Age).
Like those elegantly composed LPs, everything on here began with Moore behind a piano, and not just whatever he has access to in New York. Rough sketches and cinematic sequences were developed on 17 distinct instruments as Moore traveled and toured across North America and Europe.
“I feel like different pianos all have their own personalities,” he explained in a press release, “So in writing these new songs, I tried to embrace the personalities of the pianos I was spending time with.”
While that may be the case behind the scenes, Moore always manages to bring his big ideas down to earth and blend disparate songs into what seems like one seamless piece. Pretty impressive considering this particular album was cut in just two days at an old upstate church—a secular hour of worship that heads straight for the surface of the sun.
