Goldmund
Famous Places
Rating: 3.0/5.0
Label: Western Vinyl
The third release of the one-person music project Goldmund (also the purveyor of mellow electronic in Helios and the individual Keith Kenniff), Famous Places is built on the notion that evocations of nostalgic landmarks in the composers past can provoke sympathy, mystery and emotion in listeners. Unfortunately, while Kenniff’s moody, solitary piano pieces might spell out entire worlds of memory for him, the lack of context and unmistakable similarity between tracks does little for someone not attached or aware of their significance.
It’s notable (and not judging here, everyone needs to earn a buck) that Kenniff’s work is heavily licensed for commercial and film work. His style of spare, drawn-out mood music is perfect for creating cinematic heaviness, much as a lonely fife can produce cultural nostalgia in any movie about Ireland. But as it is, the slow, nearly-ambient piano of Famous Places is so solitary and stark that each song seems to bleed into the next without significant change in pace or mood. Kenniff’s heavily echoing upright piano tunes are pretty, but they’re also best suited for background music.
Clocking in at 15 tracks in barely over 44 minutes, most of the selections on Famous Places hover between a minute and a half to three-ish or so of quiet, melancholy piano strolls. The songs themselves base them in almost brutally simple melodies, simple minor rhythms countered by simple, graceful notes. Entirely instrumental, the album is lovely and dry, evoking images drawn solely from their titles. But as it is, even the titles are so unexplained and without context that they could signify anything; there’s no shortage in the world of places named “Alberta,” “Pine View” or “Safe Harbor.” Granted, I could only find one “Conestoga” in Pennsylvania, but you get the point.
The problem with Famous Places is not even that it’s innocuous, simple music; nearly-ambient minimalism has its place in the musical landscape. The problem is that it serves almost entirely as a personal work for its composer; while these places and their memories may mean a lot to Kenniff, you never get “why” from the album.
by Nathan Kamal
Key Tracks: Alberta, Dane Street
