Michael Eck | Fermata
Despite his singing about vagrancy and waywardness, Michael Eck’s album Fermata is infused with an American optimism. It’s no surprise that the Albany resident and occasional Chronogram contributor released three volumes of poetry, as songs like “String of Perch” stand alone as poetry delivered with energetic vocals. A song like “We Are Left to Wonder” is skeletal folk, with man-and-ukulele honesty. Other tracks, such as “The Deep End,” are fleshed out with the delicate guest vocals of Rosane Raneri. The mellow upright bass of Bob Buckley and spidering mandolin of Sten Isachsen complement tracks like “Frank is Burning.” Confessional songs like “Daniel’s Song,” whether autobiographical, fictional, or somewhere in the foggy middle, steep the album in a sense of heartache that the maker has come to terms with. Note the bookending tracks “When I Rise” and its reprise, these and what’s in between them surrender to the unknowable jingle-jangle of the world.
This article appears in December 2024.
