„I have a feeling Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of will henceforth be viewed as a towering achievement, the one that put him in the pantheon for good. It may not happen this week, next year, or even this century. But it will sit comfortably in my house right next to the late Mark Hollis’ work with Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden, Laurie Spiegel’s The Expanding Universe, La Monte Young’s The Well-Tuned Piano, Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air, Radiohead’s OK Computer, and Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way, alongside any number of defining works that established the artist as a stealth maverick, a creative genius, a singular voice.“
You may think this is a review. It is not. it is a story, part of a story. It‘s the part that looks like a review. For Uli Koch and me, „Life Of“ has been the album of 2018. Fair to say, it will soundtrack the life of some people. For example, it had a profound effect on Josh. Personally, I don’t believe in „the pantheon“, but on a certain level, he is absolutely right. His essay comes with a required caveat that listening to healing music should not serve as a substitute for regular checkups with medical professionals. You may want to read this in a quiet moment. (m.e.)
Josh Rosenthal is owner of Tompkins Square label, based in San Francisco, and author of ‘The Record Store of The Mind’. His label has received eight Grammy nominations, most recently for Sonny Clark Trio: The 1960 Time Sessions.