recordings
Visit the downloads page to hear music from these CDs!
Click the links below for liner notes and recording details.
New Yorkers! Nearly all of my albums are currently available at Other Music, 15 East 4th Street. That includes the new “Reveal.” The only exception is my album of Brian Wilson covers, “I Guess I Just Wasn't Made for These Times,” which shows up once in while on Ebay.
Noise In You
An experimental pop song cycle exploring the noisy emotions of life,
via the sumptuous jangle of a 12-string guitar, unusual intricately layered
orchestrations, and haunting tunes and lyrics. Includes Sufjan Stevens (vocals,
oboe) on six songs.
Long Song
“Long Song” is a buoyant bit of folk-minimalism composed in 1979
and recorded at The Kitchen, NYC, in 1981; a 15:00 composition for two singers,
banjo, cello, marimba, bowed psaltery and recorders. Available for free download,
and as a hand-assembled CDR.
Reveal
This limited-edition CD offers a good introduction to Garland’s songs.
Stripped to essentials and sung with just 12-string guitar, “Reveal”
offers new songs, and a new dimension to Garland’s music.
On the Other Side of the Window
“‘On the Other Side of the Window’ is lovely, a great surprise—I
recommend it. Don’t think you know what it is until you’ve heard
it. It’ll make you feel good, this I guarantee.”
—Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine, Matching Mole, etc.)
My Vortex Camera (Control Songs, Vol. 3)
Includes performances from the WFMU radio show “Live at the Stork Club” by
a band consisting of David Garland, Brian Dewan, and Will Holshouser, with guest
Fay Lovsky.
Togetherness (Control Songs, Vol. 2)
“Togetherness is a disc of ideal proportions, a perfectly blended synthesis
that one can consider Garland’s masterpiece.”
—Richard Robert, Les Inrockuptibles, June 5-11, 2001
Control Songs
“David Garland’s Control Songs are now digital, signaling (one wishes)
the return to public consciousness ot the best songwriter of my generation, bar
none. Filled with remarkable poetry of both words and notes, the songs draw humorously
unsentimental insights into the realities of emotional life.”
—Kyle Gann, Village Voice, 1998
I Guess I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times
“Not only do Wilson’s slight, lugubrious tunes hold up to all the serious,
chamber-style treatment..., but many are actually better for the wear. Predictably,
Garland doesn’t miss the chance to resurrect some obscure numbers.... But
the biggest surprise is the title cut. With its blaring, calliope rhythms, counterpoint
vocals on the bridge to the chorus, and Garland’s friendly baritone throughout,
the song is transformed from a maudlin whine about arrested social development
to a spirited celebration of weirdness.” —Option, Jan/Feb 1994
The Worlds of Love
“The songs on the album work as adult, if weird, love songs. They’re
funny, a reimagining of Weill, children’s songs and pop, all processed through
a synthesizer swirl and informed with free improvisation.... [Worlds of Love
is] an act of reclamation, mixing pop music with noise and turning them into
something new.”
—Peter Watrous, New York Times, 1989