Daniel Lanois' Goodbye To Language Out Now
Popmatters says of Daniel Lanois’ new album Goodbye to Language, “it represents that childish notion that music can be pretty much whatever you want it to be—a thought that too many professionals easily abandon.”
The album, out now, powerfully demonstrates what happens when a visionary artist tosses aside preconceived limitations of song and/or language to explore the emotional resonance of pure soundscapes.
Goodbye to Language was constructed from the sounds of the pedal steel guitar, Daniel on the steel and his mate Rocco Deluca on the lap steel with compositional rigour that recalls the 20th century dreamscapes of Ravel and Debussy merged with a sense of sonic futurism.
A profoundly expressive work, Goodbye to Language recalls Lanois’ pivotal work with Eno as well as the sounds he used to form iconic albums like Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, U2’s pivotal Achtung Baby, and works by Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris and others, as well his own last album Flesh And Machine.
Early Acclaim for Goodbye to Language
"His genius is to seize sounds that appear commonly in the language of song (weepy gospel cadences, clipped rock chords, the ever-graceful sound of the steel guitar) and then fracture them into bits and gorgeously shimmering droplets, removed from their usual narrative context. Where they can signify anything, or nothing." - NPR Music
“A deeply beautiful record that redefines the word meditative and shimmers with breathtaking passages of unhurried, received music” - allaboutjazz.com
“Reflects his early production work with Brian Eno (notably On Land and Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks), and nuances heard later as grace notes and sympathetic background ambience amid the productions he developed for Michael Brook, Jon Hassell, U2, and Bob Dylan, among others.” - Disquiet.com
“Deploying a variety of effects, Lanois conjures a veritable sonic mood board, with tracks like opener ‘Low Sudden’ proffering the same majestic chordal clouds he lent to Brian Eno’s celestial Apollo : Atmospheres & Soundtracks album, while ‘Three Hills’ is all crystalline glissando shimmers and ‘Heavy Sun,’ with its semi-industrial drones, might have fallen off an early David Lynch soundtrack.” - Mojo
“Lanois is taking the spacious ambience of Belladonna and Flesh and Machine further beyond his previously established orbits. Best of all, it represents that childish notion that music can be pretty much whatever you want it to be—a thought that too many professionals easily abandon.” - Popmatters
“Its beauty and sheer effervescence create a tranquility all its own.” - No Depression
“Painted with abstract ideas and intense emotions, twisting traditional instrumentation into futuristic dreamscapes… Goodbye to Language is an engaging exercise in both musical speaking and listening.” - exclaim!