Steven R. Smith
Owl

Steven R. Smith is a Californian composer associated with the diverse world of psychedelia.

The California-psychedelia connection should not be misleading: Smith has little to do with the revival of sixties psychedelia styles.

"Owl" is a deeply earthy and human album, with rarefied atmospheres rather than dark ones, characterized by a psychedelia far from cosmic-sideral deviations.

Smith does everything himself, using only guitar and, for the first time in his work, voice. The vocal inserts scattered here and there do not weigh it down and, while they linger with indolence, they give more breadth to the whole.

It starts with a dissonant and claustrophobic duo ("Across the Flats" and "The Pity of All Things"), then the mood softens with the folk of "Whistling" and the dark dilation of "The Tree King." The circle closes with "Upon," which combines the harsh and the gentle soul present in "Owl."

For a novice, this could be the ideal starting point to navigate his prolific discography.

"Owls are not what they seem."