LP Edition of 350. Drowned Lands Series no.4. Bandcamp link
$23
Turner Williams Jr is a string-player out of the same Alabama surrealist scene that gave us Rev. Fred Lane & the Say Day Bew gang, Davey Williams & LaDonna Smith’s Trans Museq universe, and the Sweet Wreath madmen (who have been working with Johnny Coley, Silica Gel and others). Some crazy shit has gone on down there, and Mr. Williams soaked it all in before heading up to NYC, where he fell in with some of the Sound @ One scene. Which added another layer to the freak potential of his playing.
After drifting around the East Coast for a few years, Williams packed up and moved to Marseilles, but not before cutting this session with Jason Meagher at Black Dirt. And it’s a monster.
Turner plays electric shahi baajas, gaz and perhaps other ostensibly Eastern instruments, which he uses the create amazing clots of improvisational flow. He cites Michael Flower’s work on bulbultarang, and the entire ouevre of the late Davey Williams as inspiration, and manages to create music as fresh, wild and original as anything either of them has done.
The sounds here are generated by just strings and effects, but the way he toggles back and forth between known and unknown tongues demonstrates a conceptual mastery that matches his ace technique. There are bits of this you might think were Paul Metzger, or maybe one of the guys from the World of Pelt, but not many other folks would be able to pull off something so seamlessly syncretic. The tangled fusion of East/West, traditional/post-modern, inside/outside displayed on Briars on a Dewdrop makes the album a brilliant puzzle to try and unravel.
Turner Williams? Just say oui! You’ll be glad you did.
–Byron Coley, 2023
