Luke Schneider is a seasoned session musician, whose been recording for over 20 years. For Dancing In Quiet Light, however, is only his third solo LP. A Tennessee native, Schneider’s previous albums have appeared on local labels Centripetal Force and Third Man. His latest, arriving care of L.A.’s Leaving Records, is inspired by both his rural surroundings and Lou Reed’s recently discovered ambient opus, Hudson River Wind Meditations. The music was constructed solely on Schneider’s vintage `60s Emmons ‘push/pull’ pedal steel guitar. His ethereal instrument emitting graceful, gliding, glistening vibrato and glissandi. A celestial shimmering where beautiful bent notes, with their roots in country, warp, warm like whale song and almost human sighs. 

Intentionally new age and healing, similar, in its way, say, to Iasos’ Angels Of Comfort, the serene, simple chords overlap in waves, layers of delayed drones. Relaxing, reassuring the listener, like some self-help meditation / hypnosis tape. 

Initially Schneider’s playing is easy to identify, bringing comparisons to BJ Cole and Eno & Lanois’ Apollo Atmospheres & Soundtracks / Deep Blue Day, but, as the record spins, things slowly swim further out into unplumbed waters, and the peaceful emissions are stretched and treated, raising a wall of ringing resonance. Sometimes squeezed into a reed, bagpipe-like sound. The loops of repetition expanding, evolving into a symphonic sheen. By the end, though, individual strings are brought back into focus, forming swooning, soothing lullaby-like arcs. The closing coda sonically shining through, like a beatific beacon of light. 

Luke Schneider’s For Dancing In Quiet Light is out now on Leaving Records.