Comfort by Sam Frampton
The music on Comfort was composed at a comfortable kitchen table and recorded in an uncomfortable bathroom.
In the winter of 2020, I moved into a garden apartment on the northwest side of Chicago. Weeks later, the world changed. Paper towels were suddenly hard to come by. The streets became eerily empty. The COVID-19 pandemic had begun.
I found myself furloughed from my day job, wondering what to do next. I took to spending hours at the kitchen table of my new apartment playing extended improvisations on my guitar.
Over the next few months, I shaped these improvisations into compositions. I wrote by ear, often playing a single idea over and over for hours until I got it just right. I found this process comforting. It gave me peace.
Things changed again in the summer of 2021, when I moved to New York City with my then-girlfriend. As we weathered the storms that come with adjusting to a new city, I continued to find comfort in the solo guitar music I'd written back in Chicago.
Turning my compositions into an album presented unique obstacles. In an effort to lighten my load before moving to New York, I had let go of much of my recording equipment. I hit on a quintessentially millennial solution: record the whole album on my phone.
Our apartment sat at street level and played host to an impressive range of construction noises throughout the day. I would've hated to have a great take ruined by the sudden onset of a jackhammer outside. The bathroom offered the best acoustic isolation out of all the rooms of the apartment. That's where I recorded the whole album, sitting on the toilet with my guitar.
That toilet placed me in such an awkward sitting position that my left hand would usually fall asleep and go numb halfway through a take. I'd keep on playing until the take was done. Still--even in the middle of physical discomfort--the music brought me spiritual comfort.
I offer you this album not just for the music on it, but for the story of how it came to be. I hope Comfort brings you some peace amid the storms of life, just as it did for me.
Sam Frampton
Chicago, Illinois
November 2023
Tracklist
| 1. | Such a Lonely Heart (Right from the Start) | 6:03 |
| 2. | Can't Fix the Rain | 3:54 |
| 3. | Like a Star, Who You Are | 2:02 |
| 4. | El Vaquero | 8:04 |
| 5. | Plains Winter | 6:51 |
| 6. | The Bead | 3:22 |
| 7. | Big Bill | 5:40 |
| 8. | Song of the Sun Man | 5:02 |
Credits
Credits:
Sam Frampton - guitar
Composed and produced by Sam Frampton for Science of Sound Publishing (ASCAP)
Recorded at home, Fall 2021-Winter 2022
Mixed & mastered by Dave Vettraino
Cover art & design by Gavin Ringquist
Each track recorded in a single take, with no edits or overdubs
