photos by Chuck Deters
MetalSucks is hosting a video premiere of Warr guitarist JASON BLAKE performing “Abstractions Of Thought,” the lead track to his new solo album, Imaginary Cages, nearing February release through Wayfarer Records.
A six-song progressive rock suite of solo Warr guitar, Imaginary Cages features some of BLAKE‘s most complicated work to date, boasting technical prowess in a bold but subdued setting. With delicate and tranquil chorus-drenched ambience, JASON BLAKE executes forty minutes of precision musicianship with no overdubs. The album was mixed by Tyler Rice at Transient Sound, mastered by Bob Katz at Digital Domain (Foghat, Sinead O’Connor, Necrophagist), and completed with artwork by Hajo Müller (Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson).
With the premiere of the Imaginary Cages Episode 1 video for “Abstractions Of Thought,” BLAKE delves, “While I enjoy using the Warr Guitar as part of a band scenario, I have always thought that it makes for a great solo instrument. The ability to play interlocking lines or independent bass/guitar parts simultaneously allows for a lot of creative options.
I wanted the music to be similar to Aziola Cry in that it was progressive in nature and used odd time signatures. The biggest difference was that I wanted no overdubs because I wanted this music to sound the same live as on the recording.
When people see the name Warr Guitar or touchstyle guitar, they don’t always know what that actually means. I had this idea to film myself playing all of the songs to highlight the instrument and this style of playing. We filmed it at Transient Sound in Chicago, and I added the album storyline through an animation narrative running throughout the video series.”
Writes MetalSucks, “‘Imaginary Cages Episode 1: Abstractions of Thought,’ BLAKE’s first single, arrives with an equally simple video. And that’s by design: many folks aren’t aware of the magic of the Warr guitar, and Blake wanted to showcase that front and center.”
Immerse yourself in JASON BLAKE’s “Abstractions Of Thought” video first through MetalSucks now at THIS LOCATION.
Imaginary Cages will be released by Wayfarer Records on February 25th. Preorders for the standard digital, 24 Bit High Res digital, and CD are now live HERE.
Watch for additional videos and more on the album to post over the days ahead.
The Warr Guitar is a twelve-string instrument incorporating the range of a guitar and bass. It is played by tapping the strings; a technique known as touchstyle guitar. When his primary band, Chicago-based instrumental/progressive metal trio Aziola Cry, returned from a fourteen-year hiatus with the Sensory Records release of their blazing The Ironic Divide last year, JASON BLAKE’s performance on the record was noticed and praised by critics and fans abroad. Within the group, he writes music featuring the rhythmic and melodic capabilities of the Warr Guitar in a band setting.
However, with his solo work, JASON BLAKE pushes the boundaries of the instrument while incorporating elements of progressive rock, ambient, and classical. Signed to Olympia, Washington-based Wayfarer Records, he released his first album for the label in June of 2021. Called, “an aural feast of different sounds,” by Sea of Tranquility, the album Fictional Mirrors was the first album of a planned progressive ambient trilogy titled The Ternary Instinct. While the other installments of that series are being formulated, BLAKE now returns with Imaginary Cages.
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