![]() When Cook began these songs, he was in the headspace of meditating on the people in his support network, and those closest to him. The resulting "All These Years" record is near hymn-like, a collection of prayers or meditations, improvisations threaded together by feeling, by the things that matter most. It’s also where Cook’s wife, Heather, worked for years for his family, it’s like a second home. The church’s cavernous space has long been integral to Cook’s day-to-day life as an artist - a venue that suggests music as a higher power, and art-making as a form of worship - a place that elevates the act of writing a song to something beyond sacred. "All These Years" feels like starting over, or like a return, trimming everything back to its original starting place. ALL THESE YEARS PHIL COOK FREEPiano is where Cook is the most expressive, an easy, free flow of emotional output. These ten pieces came to life on a long-cared-for and much-loved one-hundred year-old Steinway over a week in the spring of 2021. ALL THESE YEARS PHIL COOK FULLCook and Joseph have been close their entire lives, with Joseph being one of the people who knows the full depth of Cook’s relationship to the instrument. "All These Years" is Cook’s first solo instrumental album on his primary instrument, recorded at NorthStar Church of the Arts in Durham, NC by his cousin and collaborator Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, Indigo Girls). In that way, "All These Years" is sort of the first proper introduction to Cook, to the way he can express himself with the most ease and reveal the deepest compartments of his heart. But even across all the work he’s done in his decades as a musician, he’s yet to release a proper piano album. A sweet and affable presence whose musical dexterity elevates every project he touches, Cook’s musical output and true sound has been hard to pin down. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, solo artist, and in-demand musician whose collaborations have run the gamut of genre - as a founding member of beloved band Megafaun to work with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bon Iver, Kanye West, and Hiss Golden Messenger, to name a few - Cook has always been a musician’s musician. Purchase the digital version here, and pre-order the vinyl here.For Phil Cook, it all started with piano. This is a collection of snapshots.Ġ5/19 – Duluth, MN Sacred Heart Music CenterĪs Far As I Can See is out now digitally and 5/31 on vinyl via Psychic Hotline. Polaroids in a pile, all of them capturing the essence, none of them without imperfection. Sunrise to sunset allows me to believe in the sprit of these wandering moments and see them as a snapshot of that day, that time. “Couple of Takes, Keep the Mistakes” and whatever I finish in a single day is the record. I’ve approached every single one of these recordings with the same mindset. Also along the way I’ve found discreet pockets of time here and there to sit on the porch and wander. In that time, I’ve traveled this country and beyond many times. I began taking my banjo and guitar on the front porch, starting in the spring of 2009. In a press release, Cook comments on the batch of new songs and their meaning to him: The new project is a collection of songs from out-of-print releases and unreleased recordings. Americana instrumentalist, Justin Vernon collaborator, and Megafaun member Phil Cook has just dropped a surprise new compilation called As Far As I Can See: Instrumental Recording 2009-2019, the follow-up to his 2018 full-length People Are My Drug. ![]()
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