I’m excited to share details about the latest release that’s available now on our in-house label, Round Bale Recordings. Once again, I’m happy to be working with the Colorado-based artist, Cody Yantis, this time putting out his latest and arguably most accomplished solo release to date in Physical Silence. I was fortunate to discover Cody’s music in the early days of the Free Form Freakout podcast, which at that time he was primarily crafting spacious, electric guitar workouts on par with the likes of Loren Connors. The ensuing years, through various solo and collaborative efforts, would see his sound gradually expand while retaining a distinctive quality that Brad Rose of Foxy Digitalis quite aptly described recently: “Cody Yantis’s work is always purposefully reserved, revealing only the moments that need to be heard.”

On Physical Silence, Yantis has composed a series of highly evocative vignettes that display a broadened multi-instrumental approach to his arrangements, yet there is nothing superfluous at play. Each track feels like a short meditation with each successive piece driving towards that Bill Dixon idea of “going to the center” that has inspired Yantis and his Tilth bandmate, Nathan McLaughlin’s, work for several years. On Physical Silence, Yantis has arrived with a sequence of short compositions that boldly hits the mark and I’d love for you to hear it. Below you’ll find more information about the release, along with links to order a copy if you’d like. It should be noted that the first 50 direct orders through Bandcamp will come with a limited set of three different prints of Charles Parson’s hand-drawn postcards that served as inspiration for the album. Feel free to get in touch if you have any further questions about this release or anything else related to Round Bale Recordings.

~David Perron / RBR & FFF

RBR-021: Cody Yantis – Physical Silence CD/DL ($11/$7)

To hear the Denver-based artist, Cody Yantis, explain it, Physical Silence is the solo album that he had always hoped to make when he initially started recording music over 20 years ago. Over that time span – the past decade in particular – Yantis has been honing his craft in various solo and collaborative projects that have appeared on notable artist-run imprints such as Full Spectrum, Patient Sounds, Flaming Pines, and Digitalis Ltd. Also noteworthy is Yantis’ work in the group Tilth, who provided the impetus for our very own Round Bale Recordings label to launch back in 2015 with their album Country Music being our inaugural release, a relationship that continues to this day with their forthcoming album Rock Music due out on the label in the coming months.

Through his divergent musical and other artistic pursuits, Yantis has broadened his instrumental prowess and palette well beyond the resonant electric guitar work that he is perhaps best known for and has further refined his skills as a composer. He has now arrived with Physical Silence, an album that is filled with concise yet beautifully evocative instrumental miniatures and arguably Yantis’ most accomplished solo release to date. The sounds and arrangements on Physical Silence can be situated comfortably alongside works by artists such as Loren Mazzacane Connors, Steven R. Smith, or some of the more meditative passages of Francis Plagne’s recent output.

In the album notes, Yantis shares that the brevity of the pieces heard on Physical Silence were influenced by two key factors that informed his musical practice while recording: “The album and song titles are phrases from The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Margaret Jull Costa. This text also served as inspiration for the content and short format of these pieces, many of which first took shape as sonic responses to the hand-drawn postcards I received throughout the Covid-19 lockdown (2020-2021) from the sculptor and visual artist, Charles Parson.”

Like Pessoa’s writing in The Book of Disquiet, Yantis has created in Physical Silence an album that is poignantly reflective, a work of discrete melodic and tonal parts that form one poetically rich whole.