Windham Hill Records was a unique and quietly defiant presence in the 1980s and early 1990s label landscape. While hair-metal excess was giving way to the raw urgency of grunge, Windham Hill, founded in 1976, moved in the opposite direction, carving out space for instrumental, often acoustic music that resisted easy categorization. The label introduced listeners to singular talents like the late Michael Hedges, whose percussive acoustic guitar work occupied a space between folk, jazz, classical, and atmospheric music. Though perhaps the most broadly recognized artist on the roster, Hedges was hardly alone; players like David Cullen and others pushed similarly elusive sounds that continue to defy easy definition. Some, like George Winston, even charted with his solo piano records.
After a series of ownership changes, Windham Hill’s catalog ultimately found a home at Sony, where it now exists without issuing any new releases. Yet the music the label championed has aged remarkably well, its influence still echoing in contemporary instrumental and roots-based recordings. That enduring resonance makes this new collaboration between My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel and former Band of Horses guitarist Tyler Ramsey such a welcome arrival.
The two first crossed paths years ago when Band of Horses opened for My Morning Jacket. Their musical relationship deepened through occasional duo tours, and eventually, through a shared desire to explore their mutual admiration for each other’s approach to guitar, the project now known as Celestun took shape. Largely instrumental, the album, available January 15, nods to the lineage of guitarists like Clarence White, John Fahey, Leo Kottke, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and, inevitably, Michael Hedges. The songs unfold with patience and warmth, simple in structure, rich in mood, moving at the pace of a Sunday drive with no urgency and plenty of room to absorb the scenery. Bruemel’s classically informed touch pairs beautifully with Ramsey’s nimble fingerstyle approach.
Recorded partly through file-sharing and partly together in the same room, Celestun is a tight nine-song set. With a release date of January 15, it feels tailor-made for a sub-zero evening, best enjoyed beside a roaring fire.
Celestun, album cover.
We spoke with Carl about how the record came together, and how this collaboration may shape not only their future work together, but their individual paths as well.
Ray Chelstowski: This is very “Windham Hill” in sound. Did it start out that way or did you arrive here in the process of building the songs?
Carl Broemel: We are both fans of the Windham Hill albums. I would say Tyler has a deeper knowledge than myself about that genre of music, but we definitely had it in mind as a reference as we got started! George Winston and Michael Hedges are the artists that I’m most familiar with [from the label]. When I listen to those guys I feel peace and purity, and I think we also want to put that energy out in the universe!
RC: In the spirit of WH, you reference Michael Hedges in the promo material. He was known to live on the fringe of their sound and often kicked things up with songs like “Funky Avocado.” Did you think about adding anything that might live just outside of the more reflective sound the record presents?
CB: Man, I love his albums and I did get to see Michael play live solo at Bogarts in Cincinnati when was in high school. To see him command a whole show just by himself, doing instrumentals, switching gears all the time, singing his own songs, covers…I will never forget that show. He was so magical.
For now Tyler and I are just kind of exploring our thing together. So honestly, anything goes, but for the moment we are just focusing on working out duo guitar songs has been really freeing. Tyler plays keyboards, and I play some sax and pedal steel, so we will likely keep adding those things as well as work on new music. But...I’m not sure we can play wicked fretless bass like on “Funky Avocado!” (laughs)
RC: Did any of these songs begin as part of another project, either for your solo work or Carl for My Morning Jacket?
CB: I always have a batch of songs sitting around, and the song “Nevermind” just was instantly enhanced and made whole by playing it with Tyler. It’s our song now; the things he added became integral to the composition. Any song from now on that feels that way I will probably record with him!
RC: You did some touring work with Ray LaMontagne. Is your experience from that reflected in any of the tracks on this record?
CB: I hadn’t thought of that until you mentioned it! I think it may have a little [influence] actually. I was always trying to find something interesting to add to Ray’s songs that didn’t take away from his voice and lyrics. So maybe I got some extra practice on finding things that work with just two guitars and two voices. I loved playing with Ray on those tours; it was so cool to just really be able to be inside his songwriting in an intimate way. His voice in person is out of this world.
RC: This isn’t entirely an instrumental record. How do you decide that a song with lyrics belongs among so many tracks without them?
CB: As far as songs with and without lyrics, we really just followed our hearts as we went along. We did start out with the idea of an all-instrumental album, but as we got about halfway into it, we just thought, hey, we should try a few with lyrics and see how they all fit together. And once we did, it felt more like “us” in a good way. Our past tours together have had songs and instrumentals all mixed together so it just felt right that we ended up where we did with it all.
RC: Many artists struggle in naming their instrumental songs. What was your process like for that?
CB: It’s funny but I find it’s usually pretty easy to name them. Way easier than coming up with a band name or something! (laughs) I started “Garvanza” while sitting in the front yard of a house in the L.A. neighborhood Garvanza. So, a lot of times, just where I’m sitting can be the song title! We wrote “Lost Tarot” together [when] we were looking around trying to find my Tarot deck in the studio that day, so that just seemed appropriate. Tyler wrote “Celestun” in the town of Celestun in Mexico, and his daughter gave us the title for “In The Willows.” Now that I’m explaining it, I realize location is usually the inspiration for titling most of the instrumentals.
RC: How are the songs you recorded by sharing files different from those you recorded together in one room, or is there really no difference?
CB: The remotely-recorded songs and the ones done together sound pretty similar to me now! But at the time being forced into doing it remotely was a really cool way to work on music in a very relaxed way. Tyler would send me a song, I’d play on it, listen to it, try again the next day, then send it back if I thought I had it right. And vice versa on that process. No pressure or time constraints, so nice. I feel like that set the tone for everything, and then doing things together took a lot less time, in the best way; [it] felt a lot more alive and exciting in the moment.
RC: Did you use any special gear in the making of this record?
CB: We used very simple processes to record the guitars, either [Shure] SM57s or [Neumann] KM84s, and Daking mic preamps. I did run some of the songs into my cassette 4-track, which to my ear really makes the guitars sound interesting and organic. The great Nashville mastering engineer Richard Dodd really glued the whole thing together. I’m really grateful for his part in the sound of the album. I feel like he got what we were going for, which was a new instrumental album that didn’t sound super-slick and perfect. Tyler and I both mainly used old Silvertone and Harmony acoustic guitars that have been rebuilt by our pal Scott Baxendale.
RC: How has the making of this record impacted the way you might approach your next solo project?
CB: My next solo project might be with Tyler! We have some new songs kicking around that we hope to record soon. Also, Tyler has some killer new songs for his next solo project.
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