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| Peter Buffett - "taring At The Sun" After a successful two decades as an EMMY Award-winning composer and a solo instrumental musician, Peter Buffett has found his voice (literally) on 'Staring At The Sun' (August 21st, BeSide Records). His notable atmospheric music continues to dazzle but it's Buffett's vocals inspired by the lush harmonies of his musical influences like Simon & Garfunkel, the Byrds and the Beatles that are at the forefront. 'Staring At The Sun' peers into Buffett's restless musical imagination with a ska feel on the verses of "Slow Suicide", the dusky ballad "Anything", lullaby like "Where You Are Right Now", galloping "Reminder", and the celestial title track to name a few variations. The album easily fits into an iPod playlist with albums by Imogen Heap, Iron & Wine, AIR, and Thom Yorke. Though Omaha born Buffett has garnered two EMMY awards (2002 'Ojibwe – We Look In All Directions' and 1999 'Wisconsin: An American Portrait'), and contributed a song to the ACADEMY AWARD winning 'Dances With Wolves' score, it wasn't until 2006's 'Gold Star' album that he put vocals to his intricate ambient sounds. He explains, "It wasn't really until I went through my own huge level of personal growth and ups and downs, that I found I wanted to write from a more personal place, and I realized that I had to sing in order to do that." Yearning and contemplative lyrics like "I look inside and find the soul of any man/Does it take much more than reaching for your hand?/ Is there something I can say?" on " Anything" may stem from experiences in Buffett's day job as the co-chairman of the billion-dollar NoVo Foundation. The foundation is currently supporting the International Rescue Committee's work in West Africa. "These songs aren't that different from my instrumental work, with the melodies and the vocals shaping themselves around the tracks, " Buffett explains. But with the lyrics and layered vocals, "the picture is finally complete. Now, there's some meat on the bone, and I've tried to go a little deeper than just holding hands, to quote the Beatles." write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |