Cole Pulice

For those in the cassette wilds, Cole Pulice has been delivering wave after wave of jazz ambience and electroacoustic euphoria. Solo, or in tandem with a plethora of collaborators that include Powers/Rolin Duo, Lynn Avery, Nat Harvie, Roy Werner, and Chuck Johnson, they’ve amassed a catalog that’s already miles deep just within a few short years. For their first LP for the venerable Leaving Records, the songwriter expands the view once again, turning Land’s End Eternal into an expansive, pastoral vista that showcases not only Pulice’s warm woolen sax lines, but also a larger focus on piano, guitar, and electronics. The record is bookended by the tumultuous opener “Fragments of a Slipstream Dream,” which plays into Cole’s prowess with constrained noise, and the beautifully constructed closer, “After The Rain,” a winding piece that assembles a brass choir to achieve a pastoral glow that peaks with guest vocals from Maria BC.

The centerpiece of the album is a three-part suite, “In a Hidden Nook Between Worlds” that finds Pulice pairing sax and guitar in a delicate dance. The prevalence of the guitar on the album, at first surprising, becomes central as the record unfolds. In the suite the reeds and strings compliment one another, softly swaying against the each other’s breezes. At times Cole sets their lines hiding and seeking, at others leading one another by the hand. The record is a big step into the sun for Pulice, who’d been steadily gaining attention, but now walks out into the light properly. As the ambient jazz spotlight has widened, plenty have entered into its light but Pulice has always been a luminary among their contemporaries. There may be no greater well of calm that can come your way this year, so I’d recommend letting this one soak into the seams every chance you get.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.