JOHN VANDERSLICE

White Wilderness

[Dead Oceans]

There’s always been an orchestral sensibility to John Vanderslice’s music. This time he makes it official by teaming with San Francisco’s Magik*Magik Orchestra on nine new tunes featuring Minna Choi’s subtle, skillful arrangements of strings, horns, woodwinds and more traditional rock toys like piano and pedal steel guitar. Sleek strings race crosswise across the contrapuntal groaning of wind instruments on “Convict Lake,” ghostly pedal steel floats through “English Vines,” and bold strings swirl above a sturdy drum beat on “Overcoat.” Vanderslice pulls back to strummed acoustic guitar on “After It Ends,” and the simple song sounds perfectly at home amid the more elaborate fare surrounding it. It’s worth noting that Vanderslice, who’s known for exacting (if not fussy) sojourns in the studio, recorded White Wilderness live with Magik*Magik in a mere three days. After all, there’s no sense trying to improve on something you got right the first time. –Eric R. Danton