Certain musicians are, you feel, in a state of perpetual motion, forever searching for new modes of expression. Thom Yorke, Kristoffer Rygg, Bjork… Refusing to settle on a winning formula, they endeavour to capture a unique moment in time, each new release a distinct progression from the last. Nick Cave, Jim O’Rourke, Yeule…
So too, William Tyler, who, in a similar fashion, and within the broadest parameters of experimental Americana, continues to shatter his own moulds. His latest album Time Indefinite is a captivating, amorphous soundscape of complex emotions that stretches out far and wide, decayed and frayed, unlike anything he’s attempted before. It’s starkly different to 2016’s richly evocative Modern Country, or the all-out cosmic country follow-up Goes West, both of which rocket-launched his status from sidearm guitarist in bands Silver Jews and Lambchop to virtuoso multi-instrumentalist in his own right.
But Time Indefinite is the result of a troubled period in William Tyler’s life. When he last played Todmorden – with Jim Ghedi at The Golden Lion in 2019 – his trajectory was unequivocally skywards but, to the backdrop of a global lockdown, things soon began to unravel. A considerable factor was the suicide of his former bandmate, Silver Jews founder David Berman.
“I call it a great regression,” he explained in an interview for The Guardian earlier this year. “The way I was drinking was moving in a pretty negative direction… There were complexes being triggered by substance use, but also the isolation and loneliness.” (As a child, Tyler was treated for depression and OCD and diagnosed with Asperger’s.)
William scheduled a short UK tour for September 2024, including a date at The Golden Lion, but cancelled due to “a mental health crisis and alcoholism.” He now acknowledges that going public has helped him.
During tonight’s show, at the beautiful and intimate Natural Endings funeral home, we witness a man emerging, cautiously, into a better personal space. He enthuses over the vibrational qualities of Todmorden and warmly thanks the guys at Basin Rock who have helped make tonight’s event happen. His mum is here with him on this tour. He appears gentle, sensitive and, at times, even a little sentimental, most notably when describing the rustic history behind the gospel-ish AM radio sample on Star Of Hope, one of the most melodious gems off his latest album.
The set is a collage of William’s solo work to date. With the connecting thread of an ingrained Nashville heritage, he flits between various career landmarks – the breakthrough albums, his earliest creations and a sprinkling of Time Indefinite, as well as a taste of his recent collaboration with Kieran Hebden of Four Tet fame. To finish, we are treated to the divine desert blues epic Highway Anxiety and an encore request of Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way, which he re-imagined and recorded for an Aquarium Drunkard Lagniappe Session.
Across the hour-long set, William flexes a substantial artillery of instrumentation – bare acoustic, reverb-soaked electric, 12-string, MacBook, (what looked like) a transistor radio and even a miniature hand fan, used as a plectrum on acoustic for the opening drone sequence.
For an instrumental one-man show, the range of textures is dazzling. And as returns go, we are left feeling grateful that this special alt-country talent has found enough inner-peace to share his multifarious gifts with the world.
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