The UK-based musician known as Tuluum Shimmering (née Jake Webster) has a singular talent for channeling familiar songs into new forms, stretching the core of their nostalgic melodies into a cosmic infinite. Taking requests from listeners, he presents these reinterpretations as psychedelic meditations spanning 60 minutes or longer, graciously offered as a free download on his Bandcamp page. Since 2014, Webster has produced eight entries in this series. I must thank Jay Babcock of Arthur Magazine and more recently Landline for turning me onto this trance-inducing sonic world, which has provided a lulling soundtrack for the last few months of self-isolation.
In April 2020 alone, Tuluum Shimmering has delivered his takes on the Grateful Dead’s “Bird Song”, Miles Davis’s “Black Satin” and America’s “A Horse With No Name.” The latter is one of my personal favourites: a staple of childhood road trips with my family as we rambled across Canada and the US in a series of station wagons. Another Tuluum Shimmering entry that will bring a smile of recognition to countless listeners is “Linus and Lucy,” originally recorded by the Vince Guaraldi Trio in 1964. The last surviving member of that group, drummer Jerry Granelli, has become a mentor for countless musicians of a new generation since moving to Halifax and becoming a teacher. Granelli brings his experiences performing with Bill Frisell, Ornette Coleman, and Anthony Braxton, alongside leading Light Sound Dimension, a group that toured Europe with the Dead in 1971. Tuluum Shimmering’s 75-minute take on “Linus and Lucy” brings it all full circle, revealing the Peanuts gang theme as the endless lysergic voyage it was all along. / j locke
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