Space Summit officially releases their new album ‘Life This Way’ today (September 10th). Long overdue, in my opinion, because I have literally waited months for this to come out for multiple reasons. Marty Willson-Piper is one of my guitar heroes, for one. He always knows what to play and how to play. He has a style all his own. And, combined with Jed Bonniwell, Space Summit is a complete band. A dynamic duo. But this is a family effort with musicians that span the globe as well as genres (list in bio).
Perfectly mixed and mastered, ‘Life This Way’ is perfectly track listed in a way that each track could be chapters. Each sets a mood in the atmosphere around you. The album is also one of those sets of music that will mean different things to different people. What you get out of this may not be what I get out of it. What I get out if it, at this moment, are ten songs lush with sound and lyrics rife with expression. I also get an album made by music fans as well. Marty and Jed’s person record collections and musical tastes shine throughout as a nod and an ode to good music. ‘Life This Way’ isn’t a grab at your wallet. It’s a tug on your heart.
Check out our other features with Space Summit HERE.
Check out our other features with Marty Willson-Piper HERE.
About ‘Life This Way’ (Album)
Space Summit is a collaboration between the ubiquitous Marty Willson-Piper (ex-the church) and Minneapolitan Jed Bonniwell. Writing the music together, Marty handles the luminescent electric guitars and the bass whilst Jed is in charge of lead vocal duties and lyrics. The album is produced by Marty and producer/engineer Dare Mason who also plays keyboards. Phoebe Tsen sings harmony vocals, Olivia Willson-Piper plays the strings and Eddie John the drums. All the usual suspects from recent Noctorum and MOAT projects make an appearance, with the exception of Phoebe who lives in Borneo, yes, really!
Space Summit’s music was conceived in cyberspace – and was recorded in America, Borneo, Sweden and the UK. The music created on Space Summit’s debut album by Jed and Marty is simultaneously modern and classic dreampop –the subtle shading of dark and light with layered, sonic textures on every track. This album is one of the fascinating results of Marty’s Sessioneer Series, where he works with discovered collaborators from around the globe on new musical ideas.
Space Summit started as discussions around music and guitar technique in 2013 and eventually flourished into songwriting and musical collaboration. Marty would provide some musical sketches, chords or riffs – Jed would then add lyrics and additional musical ideas, and each song would continue to evolve back and forth until a complete demo had been created – finally taking the songs into the studio to record them with other musicians. With touring coming to a halt in 2020, the lockdown provided the time needed to bring this album to completion.
LINKS:
https://spacesummitband.com
https://www.facebook.com/spacesummit
https://www.instagram.com/spacesummitband
