New York musician’s orchestral showpiece
One thing I really like about contemporary indie artists is their use of traditional orchestra instruments in their music. You hear it on their DIY recordings and see it in their Tiny Desk Concerts. This certainly applies to Dan English, not necessarily new to the indie scene, but an artist that has been adding instrument textures to his records since 2018. For his second full-length album, Sky Record, he brings in an orchestra. With strings and brass and harmonica played by his father Joe, the lavishly arranged Sky Record is a feast of euphonious chamber pop.
English released his debut album Fruit Boy after moving to New York City in 2018. The Iowa native wrote and recorded the songs on the move from 2012 to 2018. Fruit Boy has all the stylistic meanderings of a bedroom recording but there’s still a place for flute, sax, organ, and a thumb piano along with added vocals by his cousin and frequent collaborating partner Melody English. Melody makes her own solo records (with contribution from Dan), and in her day job, she is the General Director of the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra. On Fruit Boy and his follow-up EP In Grace (2020), Dan mixes art with music, creating 3D animation videos to go along with his songs.
On Sky Record, English expands the marriage of art and music. The singles from the album each have their own hand-painted medieval-style artwork for the covers. The guitar and keyboard-based songs have touches of French horn, pedal steel, and saxophone, along with strings and a chorus of singers led by his cousin. English is promoting the record with two fascinating cinematic videos for the tracks “Serenity” and “Wedding Song.” In a dark building, lit by candles, a dim chandelier, and a single floodlight, English sings and plays guitar dressed in a gothic cloak, surrounded by a small orchestra and group of singers. The videos are bizarre, but the music isn’t. “I very quickly became addicted to the transportive power that music has,” English told Kaitlyn Albrecht in a 2020 interview for LVL3. “It allows you to feel and experience things that are maybe not possible or accessible to you in that moment.”
Dan English describes his music as Emo John Cale. On Sky Record, the music can shift from baroque elegance to guitar-hero rock, sometimes all within the same song. “Generally, I approach creating like hatching eggs,” he explained to Albrecht. “I plant the seed with an initial idea/passage and try my best not to crush it by forcing development or completion.” Sky Record is moody, thundering, airy, and always surprising. And it’s gorgeous.