Philipstown resident wants tracks to be felt
Lucas Gonze makes futuristic tones with a century-old mandolin.
In his home at the foot of Mount Taurus, a computer dedicated for IT work is spartan compared to Gonze’s sound rig, which has a larger screen and a cluster of auxiliary hardware, including eight effects pedals.
Gonze released his debut album, there is only, in January and plans on Monday (April 7) to drop his second, Astomatus, which translates as “voiceless” because he lets his instrumental music do the talking.
He performs as Playing in Tongues, a reference to the Pentecostal practice of speaking in tongues, which sometimes includes snake handling, writhing on the ground and talking in unknown languages.
“This is not intended to be technical music — it’s something to be felt and hopefully take listeners to another place,” Gonze says. “It’s not rational, just as the people who speak in tongues don’t determine what they’re going to do. They let it happen.”
Gonze grew up in Rockland County and spent many years in Oakland, California. He returned east a couple of years ago, choosing Philipstown for its beauty and the Haldane school system for his sons.
Having the tools and freedom to create whatever he wants, no matter how outlandish, is liberating. “I don’t worry about fret buzz or other imperfections like that,” he says. “I lean into things that others would edit out.”
Despite his experimentation, the musician can conform to structure, playing lead guitar and mandolin on a new four-song EP by the neo-hippie Philipstown-based group House on the Hog. He also sits in with Soil & Soul and Johnny Hoppe’s Lush.
As a music student at Bard College, Gonze became attracted to roots Americana, bluegrass and other acoustic styles. But he veered toward the anti-commercial and designed moody soundscapes by twiddling knobs.
In the video “Folk Noir” (below), released in March, he plucks a chord on the mandolin, lets it ring and reaches outside the frame to turn the dial of an oscillator, which adds a wash of psychedelic waves.
Gonze’s meditative, ambient work, which he calls “space music,” ambles in the slow lane. Less is more and the microphone captures his breathing toward the end of the ghostly video.
Recently, choreographer Ida Manaserian of the National Ballet of Armenia found his title track to Astomatus a perfect fit as the soundtrack for a 3½-minute video created with two male dancers in an expansive landscape. Gonze describes the work as an “intense cinematic” to “searing dark ambient guitar.” The piece sounds like large insects flitting in slow motion.
“This pairing is so ludicrous,” Gonze says. “But it works because emotionally, the music paints a picture and they gave it a narrative.”
To download Gonze’s music, see playingintongues.bandcamp.com.
