Audiopile Review: Fresh off The Doober, his newest collaborative effort with longtime pal Sam Gendel (also in this week), Sam Wilkes forges a new trio alongside drummer Craig Weinrib and guitarist Dylan Day. Pushing into a relaxed rural psychedelia that is far less knotted than his work with Gendel, the trio feel unhurried across the album’s contemplative thirty minutes. While they take on a few standards—Jobim’s “How Insensitive” and folk funeral hymn “When I Can Read My Title”—nudging them skywards with a breezy effortlessness, it’s the improvised movements here that bear the most delectable fruits. From the hushed opener of “Standing In The Doorway”, replete with the interplay between yawning slide guitar and slack bass groove, or the glassy stringed tones and hypno-percussion of “Rain”, the trio inhabit a slightly stoned, easy going blend of jazz, folk and psych that draws on everything from The Grateful Dead’s country-rock era to the dusty jams of early MV + EE. Recorded outdoors in Southern California with a ponderous view, the record has a lo-fi warmth elevates with an ethereality that likely would have been hard to capture in the confines of a studio. A lovely album that’s arrived just in time for us to watch the leaves change colours.

Most of this recording was made during a single early evening in Southern California, outdoors, with the San Bernardino Mountains in view.

Sam Wilkes played bass guitar, Craig Weinrib played trap drums, and Dylan Day played electric guitar.

Eight months after that dusk recording session, the trio reconvened to capture a few more pieces. Wilkes wanted to hear Dylan play a Jobim melody (How Insensitive), Dylan wanted to hear Craig play a funeral march (When I Can Read My Titles Clear), and Craig wanted to play nice and gentle.

The resulting record, a document of an initial and seemingly fated musical encounter, conveys the ease and the intensity of the trio’s chemistry. Their shared sonic affinities, while essential to the record’s sound, feel secondary to the integrity, confidence, and mutual regard that suffuse each note and every beat.

Atop standards, folk songs, and hymns, Wilkes, Weinrib, and Day unfurl a series of cascading improvisations. Joyful and precise music.

Sam Wilkes is from Westport, Connecticut and lives in Los Angeles, California. Craig Weinrib is from New York and lives in New York. Dylan Day is from Fletcher, Vermont and lives in Los Angeles, California.