Multi-instrumentalist Matt Gaydar’s project Glenn Echo is set to release his first album Fixed Memory on October 15th on Digital Platforms.  The first single, “Drink Up This Fire,” evokes the feeling of waking up to a new morning. Flanked by rhythmic strumming, it ultimately builds to a memorable slide solo that calls to mind Blake Mills. The vocals float above a descending chord progression, anchored along the way by meditative, mantra-like lyrics.

With Fixed Memory, Gaydar embraces his new, imaginative persona as Glenn Echo and all the places it can take him. On album opener “Rising Wide-Eyed,” he channels his inner John Luther Adams to the tune of wind and birds chirping in the distance. Once “Overwhelm” kicks in, he leans into thick guitar tones that recall Feist’s Pleasure and layers them with heart-tugging cello. Later, on “Moon Seems Lost,” Glenn Echo offers his own southern twang in the vein of Hiss Golden Messenger, where each lyric (“You pulled me like the tide” or “Skipping stones through your breathing,” for instance) injects vivid images with universally nostalgic memories. 

“Music is a language when it comes to emotions,” explains Gaydar. “Memory—and that idea of a fixed memory in particular, something that’s deeply tied to a location or emotion—can be incredibly moving. We can feel like we’ve endured similar moments in life, even if we’ve lived in very different ways from one another, just because the music evokes a similar emotion in all of us. I think the album works best as a potential shared experience in that way.”

Photo Courtesy: Ariana Dixon