James Elkington :: “Pastel De Nada” - No Quarter
Photo: Timothy Musho
Whether collaborating with longtime friend Nathan Salsburg on an immaculate body of work that consists of titles such as “Avos,” “Ambsace," or their most recent effort “All Gist,” Elkington’s atmospheric abilities to conjure the cosmic connections between thought and reality is unparalleled as the British born, Chicago-based musician, producer, and all around soldier of stringed storytelling, returns with yet another soul-stirring effort entitled “Pastel De Nada." Quickly evaporating into the ether of human expression, Elkington’s tonal talents effortlessly summon the kindred kingdoms of spiritual sounds like never before on “Pastel De Nada," while simultaneously situating the soundscapes into this rideable valley of tone, tasteful temperament, and melodic masterful across the album’s 27 tracks. “If Me Neither was like drawing an abstract map of a place, Pastel De Nada was more like actually going to that place,” says Elkington about the botanical bones of “Pastel De Nada" as its reflective roots continue to shine and burst into feverish flames for all to see and feel. With tracks such as “Daft Zenith: Nought,” “Very Berk Squad,” and the rudimental ritual of “The Caves At Aurangabad” all swan diving into the alabaster abyss of space and time, “Pastel De Nada," and its conscious content spring forward in such a rhythm that surprises even Elkington as he draws closer to the sonic sun.
“If Me Neither was like drawing an abstract map of a place, Pastel De Nada was more like actually going to that place. On the first record, I felt like I’d only scratched the surface of a new methodology, and I was excited to keep exploring. I thought I’d be able to pick up right where I left off when I started the second, but as it turned out, it wasn’t that easy. Me Neither had been written and recorded without any expectations of having an audience; everything was unfiltered and off the cuff. With Pastel De Nada, I had to work harder to get back into the same headspace, but once I did, it started to have a depth and direction of its own.”
Where“Me Either” left off back in 2023, “Pastel De Nada" continues its medicinal mark by demonstrating the epic exercise in precision and poetic perfection like nothing else by Elkington. Making this his sophomore release on the Philly-based label No Quarter, the musician casts a complex light into the daunting darkness of our current times by uplifting the universal upholstery, uncovering a conscientious collection of sounds, textures, and adventures anthems for the people in a most profound way. While practising his morning meditation in guitar exercises that leap from one end of the fretboard and straight into the galactic gears of his recorder, Elkington naturally locked in the cosmic compositions without knowing what their use or function would be down the line. Like most great records, and their organic process to gestural greatness, Elkington captured the album’s extraterrestrial essence by punching record, allowing the alchemy of atmosphere to take flight into melodic meditation, further exploring the musician’s take on “wordless library music." Occupying the never-sleeping nerve center of Chicago’s creative community for well over two decades while building a brave catalog of high tide truth and ritualistic reasoning into the volumeless void, Elkington and his esoteric ear bend the reality around sound that is both sophisticated and timeless. As cinematic as it is contemporarily concrete, the album’s core reveals both the sunset and its rising partnership in a way that sincerely reflects the nocturnal nature of instrumental intimacy.
