BUCK CURRAN - Far Driven Sun

Sometimes it's just a matter of going back to one's roots in order to better chart the way forward. For Buck Curran this return means getting back a 1990 guitar built by English luthier Stefan Sobell, the very guitar the American musician had used to record the songs that would later make up "Wayfaring Summer" by Arborea. Sold off to help fund his first international tours, he recovers it after eighteen years of forced separation, and with it picks back up a thread left hanging for far too long - a creative thread that finds fresh momentum and inspiration on "Far Driven Sun". Spare yet no less evocative, the artist's new collection reaffirms his cosmic reach, that meditative quality that marks him as a true heir to Robbie Basho.

In this project of reasoned rigor, the power of affection remains central throughout, the force radiated by its energy: witness “Unicorn Song”, so named by Curran's daughter, a track lit by a vivid glow that emphasizes its brisk, confident momentum, the closest thing here to a folk-rock form. Even in the many passages of greater relaxation, the musician's guitar emanates a diffuse warmth, a sense of belonging that reverberates into the universe itself.

The slow unfolding of “You Are My Sun” expresses the power of grace and love better than a thousand words could; the arid touch of “Deserto Parallax” picks up these same feelings and wraps them in a mystical garb, full of unanswered questions.

Everything takes on arcane features, shapes steeped in mystery that the guitarist has always known how to probe with great precision: the ambience of “Iliad” is the ideal summation of this quest, an awestruck welling of emotion before the great questions, the advancing and restarting of chords that alone probe the ineffable.

The dense harmonies of “Solstice”, the scattered enchantments of “Bells” and the deep morning light of “May 10th, 5:15” lend greater substance to the sense of wonder Curran captures here. Traveling with a rediscovered friend, the musician displays his most airy and vital side, with no need for any words at all. A distant sun, yet an immensely powerful one.

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22/09/2025