Toby Hay: New Music For the 12 String Guitar
The state51 Conspiracy

Of the four recordings Toby Hay's released, New Music for the 12 String Guitar feels the most spontaneous. That shouldn't be interpreted to mean that 2017's The Gathering and 2018's The Longest Day lacked for spontaneity but rather that their realization involved a methodical approach by comparison. In those cases, songs were pre-composed and featured arrangements that included other musicians. New Music For The 12 String Guitar, on the other hand, was recorded over two days in the Wood Room at Real World Studios. All twelve tracks were generated live using a single guitar and with no overdubs—as the Radnorshire-based Hay says, “music in its purest form.”

The concept for the recording (issued in download, CD, and vinyl formats) originated from the London label The state51 Conspiracy, which commissioned the creation of the guitar Hay plays on the album. For this project, Fylde Guitars' Roger Bucknall was asked to build an instrument specifically for Toby, resulting in the ‘Red Kite' custom twelve-string, made from Macassar Ebony and Engelmann Spruce and designed to play in Hay's customized tunings. While a scan of the track titles indicates he drew for inspiration from the natural world, ultimately the recording's an unfussy portrait of a man and his axe. Along with descriptions that are as compact and direct as the tracks themselves, he gives fellow guitarists an extra treat in making available capo and tuning details for each song.

The opening “Morning Song” reveals immediately that the guitar built for Hay possesses a beautiful, resonant sound that suits his expansive playing style. Dense fingerpicking patterns and slide flourishes are presented with pristine clarity, muddiness never an issue. The fourth track, “The Bird and the Waterfall,” was, in fact, the first one recorded. On the morning of the first day's recording, Hay apparently took a stroll about the grounds where he happened upon a dipper hunting in the water and immediately went into the studio to record an improvisation that sparkles and shimmers dreamily. His deep connection to the outdoors crystallizes in “The Last Mountain Hare” when the piece conveys the sadness that comes when winter brings about the temporary absence of wild creatures. Plaintive too is “Dead Horse Point,” which finds Hay first meditating upon the “ghosts of forgotten horses” and then conjuring an image of their majestic gallop during a central rhythmic episode.

While his playing is never overly derivative, the spiritual tone of “The Summer the Sky Cried for Rain” might incline some to hear a hint of Robbie Basho in the performance. Written outside his tent at Green Man Festival, “Sugarloaf Blues” makes good on its title with blue-soaked figures and a good-time country swing. The feeling of peaceful contentment that infuses “Cynefin,” one of the recording's quietist yet most affecting moments, is perhaps explained by the single-word description Hay included with it: “Home.” It's telling that of the twelve pieces, the one that engages least is the closing treatment of “Auld Lang Syne,” both because the tune's overly familiar and because Hay's originals are so engaging.

November 2019