Casino by Kelby Clark

An expanded edition of Casino with two additional tracks and alternative artwork is now available through Berlin-based label Vaagner:
https://vaagner.bandcamp.com/album/casino

(Night Life and Through the Smoke are digital/Vaknar edition bonus tracks which do not appear on the US tape release)

"Casino, the latest release from New Orleans-based composer and steel guitarist Kelby Clark is an embodiment of what it means to be a gambler. More focused on the beauty that lies within chaos than the discordance, Clark presents an EP which appears to be rooted in the dissimilar genres of free-jazz and country music. While the spirit of both genres can be strongly felt throughout the six songs of Casino; the EP cannot quite be classified as either. Distinct arrangements of silky, swaying pedal steel chords echo through smoke-filled rooms as booming bass guitar drones and cacophonous percussion occasionally shifts into fleeting moments of steadily swinging rhythms - grasping onto form amidst abstraction. The songs are tightly focused, short-lived and dynamic while providing enough continuity to create an immersive continuum of hazy gambling house ambience." - WM

"American country and folk music are some of the last genres not to be fully embraced by modern creative music efforts. There are exceptions of course, with the band SUSS being one of them. Another can be found in the unconventional sounds of Kelby Clark, who has recently released two albums that reflect, if not explore, the darkness overtaking rural America.
Clark is a pedal steel guitarist who employs that instrument along with a loose set of percussive elements for eight short tracks of ambient, country-laden free improv. He layers twanging and swelling drones over rhythms driven by cymbal and snare, with an odd bass tone emerging from time to time. There is a moody melancholy to these pieces, and almost a sense of mild danger. Intended as an exploration of the desperation found on hazy floors of run-down casinos, the album can represent so much more, and is an unusually rich amalgam of expression and moods." - Avant Music News

Composer, improviser and banjo player from South Georgia.