“I haven't got any special religion this morning. My God is the God of Walkers. If you walk hard enough, you probably don't need any other god.”
― Bruce Chatwin
Hi friends,
It’s been quite a long time, and I miss writing these letters. A combination of renewed social media use and poor mental health really put a damper on my writing. These past few months have been a whirlwind of change and growth defined by new places, new people, job decisions, relationships, self-reflection, intense depression, and creative dabblings.
Peeling away from my old life and old self makes me feel alive but vulnerable. I’m digging myself out of old habits, shedding parts of my life that were used as an unhealthy measurement of my worth, and trying to get in touch with my desires and needs.
In this issue of Mortar is wine, history, walking, music, film, photos, and updates. You’ll find a write up on Southern California wine and The L.A River Wine Co. Click each “[RAVE REVIEW]” buttons for several other wine reviews [note: they’re on google slides. push ‘slideshow’ and there should be music playing as you click through. Refresh the link if the music doesn’t start on click]
The New Breed (2016) aptly sounded Jeff Parker’s arrival in Los Angeles following a prolific career as part of (Tortoise, Isotope 217) the Chicago jazz and experimental music scene. Nodding at the Angelino-centric sounds of Stones Throw, Low End Theory, and Brainfeeder, The New Breed cross-pollenates Parkers’ skill as a sampler and beatmaker with his mastery as a composer and jazz musician. In “Executive life” fat horn-line samples and a swagger-tinged bassline build a 4x4 space for the loose and free play melody intertwining guitar and saxophone. Transitioning into a moodier keyboard vamp, the the drums take on a more soloistic lead through the steezy haze Parker creates with wandering motifs passed between winds, keys, and bass. I slept on this album for too long but glad to be enjoying this treasure now.
Last month I visited Los Angeles to play a very special show with The Lentils. For the release of Budget Alchemy, Luke (liege-fae lentil) commissioned a couple of friends to arrange Lentils songs for saxophone quartet. My friend Lina Tullgren also debuted a new song band of guitar, bass, and winds, and I opened with a number of new and/or unperformed songs in a configuration of bassoon, saxophone, clarinet, and backing track.
The Lentils rehearsal the day of the show was thrilling. I hadn’t made ensemble music in over 3 years. I played alongside Lu Coy on Soprano Sax, Marta Tiesenga on Baritone Sax, Michael Sachs on Tenor Saxophone, all supporting the cryptic poetic croonings of Luke. I hadn’t experienced that much joy playing music in so long- to just feel trusted and to trust your bandmates and spark magic out of just a few haphazard hours of rehearsal felt wonderful. Rehearsal was set in a gorgeous home on top of the Mt. Washington neighborhood in Northeast L.A. The house backed up to Seaview trail which is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles that I’ve walked dozens of times.
While in L.A I visited the winemaking space for Los Angeles River Wine Co and had a tasting through all of their 2021 vintage. LARWC is a project of nomadic enigma winemaker Abe Schoener and his Scholium Project.
The Wines of Los Angeles River Wine Co. are made in downtown L.A and source grapes from old growth vineyards in and around the Los Angeles River Basin. Old vines have become increasingly rare in California and especially in the urban sprawl of greater Los Angeles. As a result of these parameters, LARWC is working with grapes that touch on the deepest and often forgotten history of California Winemaking.
It’s 1983 and vocalist Simon Milner, keyboardist Steve Hopkins, and percussionist Neil Fitzpatrick are in the studio with producer Mike Howlett. (Tears for Fears, A Flock of Seagulls)Calling themselves The Bernhardts, they’re retrofitting songs from their parallel space-cabaret outfit, The Oscar Bernhardt Ensemble, with synth and drum tracks and laying down four singles that wouldn’t see a proper release until 2021.
Whatever glam-yacht suede-pop world The Bernhardts have created, I want in on it. The four tracks on Moonglow are rich in Lynchian schmaltz and cool no-wave blasé. Milner’s vocals are impossibly florid and restless, floating around the room above the twinkle of electric piano, churning disco guitar, thick and wiggly bass lines, and a shimmering swath of synth stabs and doodles. I want so badly for there to be more of their music, but it’s just too good to be true. These four gems are still a great offering and time capsule from an exciting and cheesy(like, in a great way) era of British pop.
Well before there was Napa, Sonoma, or any kind of winemaking tradition in California there were grapes planted in Spanish Franciscan Missions across Southern California. In fact, the first vineyard planted in California was on a mission in present day San Juan Capistrano in the late 1770s. They planted Mission, a regional synonym for a nearly extinct Spanish grape variety called Listán Prieto whose plantings became known as País in Chile, Criolla Chica in Argentina, and Rosa del Peru in both Peru and also in California. Mission was used to make sacramental wine as well as Angelica, a sweet fortified wine. The white grape Palomino was eventually planted to make Sherry, and later Muscat of Alexandria and Mataro.
In 1833 a wealthy French-born Ranchero and winemaker named Jean-Louis Vignes brought cuttings of Bordeaux varieties he favored to plant in his vineyards which lined the Los Angeles River at his El Aliso Vineyards (named for the giant Sycamore tree on the property nicknamed El Aliso) At 40,000 vines, El Aliso was the most significant winery in California at the time. Vignes’ wines were drank across California, sent East, and even back to his native France to great acclaim.
Sprouting out of a rich synthesized soil of electronic hiss, sparkles, whirs, and chimes, the shimmering guitar harmonies, bellowing and tinny horn lines, and reverb soaked sonnets open the mystifying 2010 release of Northern Songs by Brattleboro enigma songwriter Chris Weisman, and laptop-folk innovator Greg Davis.
Weisman writes songs in a way that feels so biotic and breathing- form is in service to the breath as lyrics are in service of the subconscious. Davis expands upon Weisman’s rich jazz harmony vocabulary through laptop processing and additions of synthesized backgrounds and wonky solos. The result is a folk sound in 4D; taking the familiar form of song and embellishing the feelings and music electronically, organically in a way that Weisman and Davis melded together beautifully in Northern Songs.
The Gold Rush, Bay Area immigration boom, abundance of farmable land available in Northern California, and sprawl of greater Los Angeles eating usable land moved the wine industry north. The old Mission and Palomino plantings couldn’t stand up to fashionable European ‘noble grapes’ like Cabernet Franc, Zinfandel, and Sauvignon Blanc planted en masse in the 1850s to sate the thirsts of gold rush miners. Prohibition furthered this loss of old vines as many growers across the state replaced wine grapes with table grapes.
As California finally developed a quality winemaking culture in the 60s and 70s, the odds were still stacked against old vines as vineyards were increasingly replaced with more favorable and marketable Bordeaux and Burgundy varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. While this shift spurred a revolution in winemaking that put California on the map as a wine producing region, old vines became unicorns in an industry that favored marketable varieties over sustainable farming practices and long lasting vineyard health.
LARWC has found a handful of very special sites boasting very old plantings of Mission, Palomino, Zinfandel, Grenache, and a spattering of various and unknown varieties throughout various vineyards. Most of the 2021 cuvées are vineyard designates, meaning the grapes come from all the same vineyard.
Much of the soil available to these vines is decomposed granite/sand. As a result, the vine roots meet little resistance and little water is held. The roots travel deep down to find water making them hardy and rugged. I’ve never seen vines growing in such wild and unruly settings. It speaks to the power of these vines to persevere through abandonment and in this desert climate and reminds me of the philosophy behind farming championed by Masanobu Fukuoka in his “One Straw Revolution” manifesto.
The wines from the 2021 vintage were so distinct and full of character. What impressed me the most was the consistency of style across the reds and whites. The whites featured an impressive leanness and also a unique spicy bouquet evocative of sherry or Jura wines. They were delicate but teeming with spunky character, fresh and sun-tanned acidity, with a glassy texture. These were wines of and for the heat of Southern California, wines that made me homesick for patio drinking in the arid heat of L.A
The reds were racy, feisty, and full of life but also with the notable lean character present in the whites. They boast beguiling aromatics and spicy without being rich or blown out. They reminded me of the sizzling light-footed red wines produced in Hungary like Siller or a Kékfrankos. My favorite had to have been the Lone Wolf Blanc which was a Blanc de Noir expression of Mission and Grenache from Munoa Ranch. Everything from the wine’s crystalline amber hue, to it’s fragrant toasty bouquet, eloquent acidity, and lean character made this such a striking wine for me. A unique expression of unique grapes from a unique vineyard in a unique place- It’s so exciting and inspiring to me. I’ve never had wines like these before and never had wines that pulled me so deep down a rabbit hole before either.
Rogério Brandão (aka DJ Nigga Fox) is one of those artists who gripped me from the start, whose songs I put on BLAST and ventured deep into audio catacombs to discover as much of this sound as I could. The Lisbon-based producer crafts a spellbinding and sweaty fusion of Angolan kuduro, afro-house, and tarraxa into pumping, grinding, abstract club sounds that have seen releases on the Portuguese EDM treasure trove label Príncipe Discos and longstanding British left-field electronic label Warp.
In a plethora of expressions and interpretations of kuduro across hundreds if not thousands of DJs in its native Angola and in Portugal, the real art of it seems to come in the poetry and counterpoint of rhythm (usually spoken), but in DJ Nigga Fox’s case and for many artists on Príncipe Discos, it’s instrumental sampling. The rhythms pulse hot with life, dripping with sweat, breathing, and churning with a pace that is always on time and simultaneously catching up. DJ Nigga Fox pulls in a wide range of sonic influences into his singular sound creating vibrating architecture fueled by a throbbing polyrhythmic heart heartbeat and lush tapestry of otherworldly samples from avant-garde string quartets, Angolan songs, farfisa organs, and deep house synths.
I’ll be returning to Sonoma county in August to work my second harvest, this time with Kenny Likitprakong and Hobo Wines based in Santa Rosa. They make a ton of wine from a lot of different varieties (their lines include Camp, Ghost Writer, Folk Machine, Banyan, Edith & Ida) and this job will emphasize vineyard work which I’m really eager to learn more about. Hobo is known for great price points and value on their wines so go and grab yourself a bottle and let me know what you think.
Keep in touch. Hope to talk soon. Thank you for reading
love,
Cody