Schneider, Luke

Schneider, Luke

It Is Solved By Walking

Centripetal Force

***Centripetal Force is excited to announce It Is Solved By Walking, the second solo release from pedal steel guitarist Luke Schneider. Luke Schneider is a pedal steel guitarist based in Nashville. An Ohio native, Schneider moved to Tennessee to go to college with dreams of becoming a folk-rock stylist but has recently found his place in the landscape of New Age and pastoral Americana. His well-received debut solo album, Altar of Harmony (Third Man Records), is a collection of ambient compositions created entirely by pedal steel. His work on It Is Solved By Walking continues the recent experimental elevation of the pedal-steel guitar and delves deeper into the worlds of ambient sounds and moods. Like Altar of Harmony, the inspiration for this new collection of songs is rooted in Schneider's daily meditation practices, as well as his own spiritual journey. The album reflects his deepened understanding of how sound can help listeners transcend their current space and guide them in directing their energies inward. There is a sharpened focus to the songwriting on It Is Solved by Walking, a move that unclouds the troubled eye and opens the doors of clarity. Where Schneider's initial works were offered at the altar, his space for inner contemplation, these compositions mark a step in Schneider's spiritual journey that sees him ready to direct his energies in more outward directions. He has done the hard work of examining his inner self and is now prepared to share his message with others. It Is Solved...

Schneider, Luke

Altar Of Harmony

Third Man

***The history of new age music from south of the Mason-Dixon line is largely a secret one. But the south is where we fi nd one of the genre’s most important distributors—New Leaf, in Kentucky, some of its most accomplished synthesists—Don Robertson, Geoffrey Newhall, William Linton, amongst others, and acoustic musicians like PC Davidoff and George Tortorelli. It is the home of countless spiritual retreats, intentional communities, and other signifiers of alternative spiritual life. But until now, there have never been any particular regional characteristics that can be assigned to southern new age music. Until now, there has never been any crossover between country and new age. And so—all of the sounds heard on this album were made with a 1967 Emmons Push/Pull pedal steel guitar in Nashville, Tennessee. This recording, which can justifi ably be described as “new age” in the most essential sense, represents a radical new approach to the versatile and cosmic instrument of the steel guitar. The closest antecedents may be sculptural sounds of Francesco’s Cosmic Beam, or Constance Demby’s Sonic Steel Space Bass. But unlike these invented instruments, the pedal steel is steeped in tradition. This is something new under the sun, a total reinvention of an iconic instrument. Quite literally, there has never been anything else quite like it. But more than a mere piece of invention — Altar Of Harmony is extraordinarily cinematic, an epic musical devotional to higher realms — booming music of the spheres. Regardless of its origins, the expression unmistakable....