Andrew Pekler Sentimental Favourites

400 LPs. Sentimental Favourites is Andrew Pekler's first album for Dekorder and his first solo release since 2009's Entanglements In The Orthopedic Sensorium. As is the case with all of his recordings, the music on this album is the result of an investigation into an abandoned genre or aesthetic trope of the past. In this case, the object of Pekler's retro-speculative archaeology is a particular strain of late 60's-early 70's easy listening which melded the sophisticated songwriting pathos of Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb or The Carpenters with a post-psychedelic attention to sonic detail and was exemplified by such ensembles as The Mystic Moods Orchestra, 101 Strings, late-period Santo & Johnny and countless one-off albums recorded by pseudonymous studio ensembles. On Sentimental Favourites, Andrew Pekler attempts, without irony, to recapture the emotional sweep and sonic grain of these last innocent byways of pop history with his own signature electronic textures, loops and fragments of melody. The individual songs and interludes range in tone from wistful yearning to haunted melancholy and comprise a carefully planned sequence. Enhanced by the sounds of nature between and sometimes during the tracks, the listener is taken through a cycle of mood states which gradually condense into an immersive atmosphere of sentimental reflection. Repeated listening is recommended.