ALBUM REVIEW: Pan•American ‎- The Patience Fader

Kranky

Released: 18.02.22

Pan•American’s guitar instrumentals have a grave, expectant dreaminess about them. Something has happened, or perhaps something is about to happen. Not a word is spoken: there is no need for this. Mark Nelson doesn’t sing at all on his ninth solo album – every now and then a woman’s voice rises and sweetly fades away. Almost exactly in the middle of the record a creaky gate is pushed open, or gets shut forever. We’ll never know.

There are some rough edges, unresolved horizons – tentative melodies and ghostly, strident harmonica lines. The Patience Fader feels beautifully time-worn, like the tattered folk songs of Jandek, or the weather-beaten tales of Sherwood Anderson, Mark Nelson’s music comes from an ancient yet infinitely close place: it has a soul.