Bill Orcutt’s Music in Continuous Motion refines his 21st-century quartet guitar approach into something leaner, warmer and built for performance. Written for a 2026 New York concert, it moves away from the cut-and-paste precision of Music for Four Guitars towards a more fluid, melodic interplay.
Across 12 compact pieces—most around two-and-a-half minutes—four guitars braid simple, repeating motifs into shifting counterpoint. Each track establishes its pulse, introduces a central figure, develops subtle variations, then closes with crisp finality. The effect is economical but expansive, complex yet direct.
Where earlier records often hinted at conceptual constraints, here the governing principle feels more elusive. Orcutt has suggested the pieces contain “no triplets,” but whatever formal boundaries exist, they serve the music’s forward drive rather than its architecture. The sequence of titles traces fleeting shapes and sensations—“Because sharp also smooth,” “And warm to the touch,” “Now nearly gone”—echoing the album’s focus on motion and impermanence.
If its predecessor explored structure, Music in Continuous Motion privileges flow: melody over mechanism, momentum over stasis, four guitars locked in vivid, human exchange.
Across 12 compact pieces—most around two-and-a-half minutes—four guitars braid simple, repeating motifs into shifting counterpoint. Each track establishes its pulse, introduces a central figure, develops subtle variations, then closes with crisp finality. The effect is economical but expansive, complex yet direct.
Where earlier records often hinted at conceptual constraints, here the governing principle feels more elusive. Orcutt has suggested the pieces contain “no triplets,” but whatever formal boundaries exist, they serve the music’s forward drive rather than its architecture. The sequence of titles traces fleeting shapes and sensations—“Because sharp also smooth,” “And warm to the touch,” “Now nearly gone”—echoing the album’s focus on motion and impermanence.
If its predecessor explored structure, Music in Continuous Motion privileges flow: melody over mechanism, momentum over stasis, four guitars locked in vivid, human exchange.
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