Song titles such as „The Big Wind,“ „Form,“ „Walking,“ and „Aerial View“ convey a marriage of sound and word. The strong Asian influence present in much of Tibbetts‘ music is less obvious on „Northern Song“, but an openness to non-western music, as well as a reverence for the natural world and big landscapes still prevails. The songs sound like music for a locale defined by the elements and surrounded by a lot of primeval space. Space and sky, time and wind, rock and earth. More accurately, it’s the music of a rich wild nothingness. A wild nothingness sometimes dark, occasionally lonely, but just as often warm, intimate and inviting.
(Rob Caldwell, All About Jazz)
Of course, his albums have nothing to do with jazz. I‘m waiting for a new record by Steve Tibbetts, like I‘ve been waiting, over the years, with a similar set of joyful sensations, for forthcoming albums by other favourites of mine. Tibbetts made records of high diversity, and I nearly fell for all of them. I still think, one of his works, „Full Moon Dogs“ ist one of the most disturbing and wild hardcore „fusion records“ ever made. For „Big Map Idea“, I wrote the liner notes. When he called his last and very sophisticated CD, „Natural Causes“, with a sense of irony, „a three-legged dog“, what can we expect from his forthcoming work: an army of cats? Wait and listen!
(m.e.)