Norman Salant - Always All Around You (2018)

A brilliant album, Always All Around You is the second offering from the renowned former avant-pop saxophonist Norman Salant, who is probably the best songwriter you never heard of. Put your headphones on and dive into this extraordinary sonic experience. There's so much music on this album that it's hard to get your head around, a virtual amusement park of sounds and styles. The album serves as a companion to the previous release, Yodeling Goodbye. The songs explore similar themes, but this time around the emphasis is less on life and death and more on the world we live in and the various states and perceptions of it. They just don't make records like this anymore.
Message from Norman Salant:
"I started as an electronic saxophonist, which I did for 20 years. I had two groundbreaking albums in the early 1980s of experimental sax-pop that had a huge impact and were very popular. I used the studio to the utmost, layering dozens of saxophones and enhancing them all electronically. We performed as a new wave band fronted by saxophones with no singers. There was press, radio play, all the usual stuff. The projects became increasingly noncommercial. Later switched direction, did a complete 180 to songwriting. The verbal, personal, poetic thing, it really just resonated, putting words with the music. Everything I know, everything I hope for, goes into every song."