The musician who blew Hope Sandoval’s mind just by tuning his guitar
Even if you’re a diehard fan of shoegaze or dream pop, you’ll be aware that the most common criticism of both genres is that they rely too much on texture and don’t focus enough on classic elements of songwriting. You’ll know that Cocteau Twins averted having coherent lyricism in order to focus on creating an ethereal mood. You’ll be well aware that My Bloody Valentine loved to create a deafening wall of noise by maximising the use of guitar effects. Similarly, other non-traditional approaches can be applied to other pioneers of these two intertwined styles.
You might think it’s unfair to say that a shoegaze listener or artist would be impressed by watching someone twiddling a few knobs in the same way that a baby is fascinated by jangling keys, but it’s not exactly untrue. Okay – I might be exaggerating to a degree, but if you ask Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, then she’ll confirm that sometimes, witnessing a musician perform the simplest act is the most staggering thing they can do.
Her output with Mazzy Star produced some texturally gorgeous records, such as So Tonight That I Might See and Among My Swan, and while nothing on these records appears outwardly complex, it’s their subtlety and delicate approach to their craft that makes their appeal so enduring. However, when she took a sabbatical to work alongside My Bloody Valentine drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig under the moniker Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions, it was unclear how their two contrasting styles would work together.
While their debut album, Bavarian Fruit Bread, was more in line with the work of Mazzy Star than it was with that of My Bloody Valentine, it didn’t see them compromise their roots too much while they explored elements of slowcore and contemporary folk music. It was a meeting of two pioneering minds from two genres that worked in parallel with one another, but they didn’t limit themselves to creating the record as a duo.
Among the musicians that they recruited to assist them was the iconic Scottish folk legend, Bert Jansch, and while they were delighted to have such an illustrious figure perform on the record, they couldn’t help but be in awe of the Pentangle co-founder. Over the course of his career, Jansch earned a reputation as a musician’s musician, but while other guitarists consistently praised him for his effortless style, he wasn’t known for collaborating with artists outside the folk world, especially in his later life.
Getting Jansch to agree to contribute to Bavarian Fruit Bread was something of a coup, and this was not lost on Sandoval when they flew him out to their studio in Norway. Speaking to Dazed about the experience, Sandoval claimed that he was “an amazing guitarist and an amazing person”, and that working with him was a humbling experience. “He came in and everybody was nervous,” she continued. “The engineer, everybody, we were all huge fans. He started tuning and it was just mindblowing.”
Everyone else present for the sessions continued to pinch themselves for the duration of his stay, and the lasting impression that he left on Sandoval was that she felt very fortunate to have been in such close quarters with him. “We were very lucky,” she claimed. “Grateful that we had some good songs that he liked.” While his contributions to the record were vintage Jansch, it sounds as though Sandoval would’ve been totally content having him just tune his guitar on the album, and you know what – so would I.
