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LP
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FTR 696LP
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"Another fantastic slab by Virginia-based guitarist Jordan Perry, whose style fuses disparate threads from the American Primitive and avant-garde songbooks into a unique alloy. For this album Primitivism has largely been eclipsed by avant urges. Still, there is one track, 'Days Have Gone By Volume' where Jordan is joined by guitarist Ned Oldham for a piece evoking Fahey in more than its title. But that is the exception. Most of What Do You See Every Day? is filled with abstractions for acoustic guitar. His work has a genteel aura and pacing in which free melodies are played inside the context of graspable rhythmic structures. This simultaneously highlights their weirdness, and dials it back contextually by having the music emerge in a clearly delineated flow. The act of not-rushing things has the effect of softening the potentially sharp edges of the sound. Jordan also plays melodica on a track, 'For Three,' which shimmers with a liturgical edge reminiscent of plainsong. He is joined on another track, 'From Traces What Do You?,' by wordless vocalizing from two Virginia singers, Diane Cluck and Devon Sproule. Their voices (plus Jordan's own) add an ethereal otherness that is quite lovely. As is the avian field recording on 'Five Hours.' But the bulk of the music is guitar-centric and beautiful off-kilter. There are little flashes of jazziness that make me think of some of Duck Baker's work, but only for a moment. There are also bursts that seem to parallel some of the experimental work Mike Cooper has been doing for last couple of decades. But, as usual, Jordan Perry is walking a path all his own. And it is a beautiful way to wander." --Byron Coley, 2023
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Cassette
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FTR 369CS
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"FTR is excited and honored to be working with the Virginia-based guitarist, Jordan Perry, again on his new cassette. Our previous work with Jordan began with a reissue of his eponymous 2017 debut LP originally released by Good Cry Records, and was followed by vinylization of his self-released 2018 cassette, Witness Tree (FTR 465LP). Both of these albums are fantastic blends of folk technique and avant strategies, and the same can be said of this new cassette, Changing Always Who Is Waving to Us. Comprised of four pieces longer than the work on those earlier albums, the material was recorded earlier this year, originally just as a way to document some improvisations. Jordan returned to them when he was trying to write a new batch of tunes and, 'felt like they sat together nicely and were managing to do some of the stuff on their own that I was trying for with pen to paper.' Once he realized this, the project came together pretty quickly, and he decided to use a poem he'd been working on to name the tracks (and the tape itself). a cycle back not too fast with chilly eyes but two came by as our plastic horses rise and fall changing always who is waving to us. It's beautiful stuff. Like his other the music, quietly reflective in some spots and pungently intellectual in others. The length of the instrumentals also allows each to assume the feel of a mini-suite, and gives these alternating emotional approaches a chance to reconcile and create a new alloy. Perry has a way of approaching the guitar that is truly unique. And the closer you listen to it, the more surprises you'll discover in his music. Just amazing." --Byron Coley, 2020
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LP
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FTR 465LP
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"Vinylization of a self-released cassette issued earlier this year by our favorite Virginia-based guitar player. Witness Tree is a brilliant follow-up to Perry's eponymous debut LP (FTR 376LP, 2018), and expands upon the form-abstractions he first displayed there. Mr. Perry has a firm and solid touch to his string wrangling, but unlike many of his contemporaries, he doesn't seem to feel compelled to resolve all the melodic questions he raises. Perry often stops in a place he finds interesting, repeating rhythmic figures while trying out variations on the note/chord sequence that stopped him in the first place. It's a goddamn fascinating approach and allows him to explore textual aspects of the acoustic guitar that are not investigated often enough. In a certain sense, Perry's playing feels akin to that of Jon Collin's, since both guitarists appear to acknowledge the American Primitive School, while approaching its compositional orthodoxy with an attitude that substitutes experimental tendencies for blues-base thinking. But the way they resolve these themes is quite different. Perry's slower pacing and precise string selection eschews the aleatory for a kind of mindfulness that is as invigorating as I usually find randomness. A deep and lovely dig into the outer edges of acoustic guitar rambling." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 400; includes download slip. 45rpm.
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LP
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FTR 376LP
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"Much needed reissue of the extremely limited 2017 debut LP by Virginia guitarist, Jordan Perry. We were turned on to it when Chris Guttmacher at Blue Bag Records in Cambridge told Kassie Richardson of Good Cry (who did the initial 100 pressing) to send us a copy. He thought we might be into it, and halfway into one spin we knew he was right. There have been several fat boatloads of acoustic guitar players floating across our turntable the past few years. And to be honest, we've dug the majority of them. Seems like there must be a lot of good stuff in the water, or something. Despite this, a preponderance of the players we've enjoyed have definitely been in the American Primitive mode. Lots of swift modal aktion with a folk/blues base, invaded by various foreign agents. Jordan Perry's approach to his guitar is quite different. Although there are some basic völk sonorities in his playing, Mr. Perry's brunt combines these with more avant garde note selections and compositional gambits, as well as a string attack with classical qualities. While there's a gentleness to the melodies at which he eventually arrives, Perry's journey crosses prickly patches of tone clusters, and has a circular logic that defies pop logic. A few passages recall moments on All Is Ablaze, our recent album with experimental player Julia Reidy (FTR 338LP), while some of the open strumming has a beautifully languid quality verging on mid period William Ackerman. All of which makes this a record very deserving of much personal headspace. Give Jordan Perry some room and you'll be very glad you did. We promise." --Byron Coley, 2018 Edition of 300.
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