Recording: Ayal Senior

Artist: Ayal Senior

Song: Road

Recorded at The Tranzac (Southern Cross Lounge), November 12, 2017.

Ayal Senior - Road

Greyish outside, but not too cool, kids were were running up and down Brunswick Street, throwing handfuls of fallen leaves at each other. This Sunday afternoon session saw some solo Sacred Lamp action from Ayal Senior and his 12-string acoustic. Some of these tunes sounded a bit spare without Doc Dunn's slide parts, but it was also quite a treat to be able to concentrate on Senior's compositional clarity and the Fahey-esque elegance of his playing.

Recording: Sacred Lamp

Artist: Sacred Lamp

Song: Pettibone

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Afternoon of Sundays IV), May 14, 2017.

Sacred Lamp - Pettibone

Ayal Senior and Matt "Doc" Dunn's cosmic back porch Sacred Lamp duo has been a rather pleasing addition to the Tranzac's rotation of residency slots, creating mellow moods on Sunday afternoons. Mixing chiming acoustic 12-string and glass-slide melodies, there's a beautifully languid flow to the pieces that make it perfect for an afternoon escape. On this day, the Southern Cross' window was open a bit and the curtain would occasionally drift a bit in the breeze — that felt just right.

Bonus! Here's some video footage from the afternoon as well:

[Sacred Lamp has been documenting these (and other!) shows, so there are many rewards to be reaped over at their bandcamp. The residency continues on Sunday, July 9th, at 3 p.m. in the Southern Cross.]

Recording: Sacred Lamp

Artist: Sacred Lamp

Songs: Smoke Rings + unknown^*

Recorded at Double Double Land, March 8, 2016.

Sacred Lamp - Smoke Rings + unknown

This night, headlined by some supremely-proficient American underground legends, opened up with some supremely-proficient local underground legends. And although there was a loud/quiet contrast in the two parts of the night, this was a crowd that respected artistry and was admirably focused and attentive early on. Ayal Senior and Matt "Doc" Dunn were in a more restrained mode, their set featuring fewer cosmic jam-outs and more beautiful compressed gems like these, with Dunn's lyrical slide guitar giving the songs all the "voice" they could possibly need.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Sacred Lamp

Artist: Sacred Lamp

Song: Sunlight & Seeds

Recorded at June Records, October 25, 2015.

Sacred Lamp - Sunlight & Seeds

On a lovely fall afternoon, warm enough that people were sitting outside on the College St. patios one last time for the year, it looked a bit like a groove school reunion on the sidewalk in front of June Records as friends filtered in for some late afternoon vibes. This pairing of Matt "Doc" Dunn and Ayal Senior made one of their infrequent resurfacings to dust off their collection of guitar duos. They tend to switch back and forth between the sort of simmering infinity groove jams heard here, with Dunn on electric, and the crystalline-compressed beauty of their shorter acoustic pieces featuring Dunn's slide styles.

Recording: Sacred Lamp

Artist: Sacred Lamp

Song: The Ark

Recorded at Grasshopper Records, August 24, 2014.

Sacred Lamp - The Ark

Full review to follow. Ayal Senior's partnership with Matt "Doc" Dunn in Sacred Lamp is pretty malleable, so it was no surprise to see them playing a casual Sunday afternoon in-store show in a cosmic quartet formation, joined by bassist Mike Smith and drummer Mike Gennaro. Their trio of languid jams shared a certain unforced (but never too abstract) feel that could have gone on drifting in a warm timeless void.

[Reminder: there'll certainly be some of that cosmic groove haze in the air when Dunn takes the stage with a different unit at the Music Gallery tomorrow night (Friday, September 26, 2014). Not to be missed!]

Recording: Sacred Lamp

Artist: Sacred Lamp

Song: [second piece]^*

Recorded at The Tranzac – Southern Cross Lounge ("Joe's Birthday Party"), April 24, 2014.

Sacred Lamp - [second piece]

When your birthday comes around, you can curl up in a ball and cry over spilled entropy — I mean, that's a good option, done it plenty o' times myself. But every once in a while, it does the spirit well to gather some folks together instead. I can't calculate how fortunate I am that some folks whose music I dig came out to help me celebrate.

This set from Ayal Senior and Matt "Doc" Dunn started off hewing closer to the space raga they were channelling when I saw them performing as Glass Tomb, but as Not The Wind, Not The Flag's Colin Fisher and Brandon Valdivia picked up some shakers, it became a good ol' fashioned cosmic back porch jam. Senior is on acoustic, panned left here, Dunn on electric to the right.

^* Does anyone know the title to this one? Please leave a comment!

Recording: Sacred Lamp

Artist: Sacred Lamp

Song: Chilton

Recorded at Double Double Land, July 27, 2013.

Sacred Lamp - Chilton

Full review to follow. Memory tells me that when I previously saw Ayal Senior and "Doc" Dunn playing together as Sacred Lamp it was loose and jammy. This set, however, was more focused and song-based, even if the instrumental tunes were still quite airy and ethereal. For this one, it sounds like Dunn (on slide guitar) has boiled down all the beauty he has learned while meditating over Sleepwalk and Albatross.