Composer and soundscape artist Jeff Greinke presents an elegant musical landscape of delicate compositions and harmonically rich ambience, an album titled Other Weather. The eleven slowly-unfolding tracks offer multi-layered textures that weave acoustic and electronic instrumentation into a gossamer soundscape that shimmers with the stillness of a perfectly calm atmosphere in the warm light of early dusk.

As with 2018’s Before Sunrise, Other Weather spans the genres of modern classical, electronic, and ambient as it gently evolves through a refined set of impressionistic ambient chamber music. Blending electronic ambiences and effects with an acoustic ensemble that includes cello, viola, violin, French horn, clarinets, flutes, and small percussion, Greinke realizes his musical vision through an empirical process of improvisation and experimentation, combining tracks and layering sounds, and uncovering the magical moments as they reveal themselves.

The title Other Weather refers to Greinke’s very personal and experiential relationship with the weather, especially the beautiful and sometimes indescribable meteorological phenomena that aren’t often noticed or talked about. Greinke explains, “My interest in the weather has always been predominantly experiential, and as I get older I find myself attracted to its subtler and quieter aspects. I see a connection between this interest and the kind of music I like to make. This feels especially true with this album.”

Jeff Greinke has been a composer since 1980, and he has dedicated nearly 40 years to making and recording music. He has performed throughout North America, as well as Europe and China, and his music has been heard in theatre, radio, art installations, and major motion picture trailers. Other Weather is Greinke’s 40th solo album, and his fourth on the Spotted Peccary Music label.

Greinke describes his very specific and timely inspiration for Other Weather, “I live in the Sonoran Desert, just outside Tucson. In late April and early October there is a brief window – maybe a week or two – when a variety of conditions come together to create an almost magical environment. It’s a feeling in the air produced by a combination of the temperature being just right – 84 or 85 degrees, the air being perfectly calm, warm early dusk light and low relative humidity. It lasts maybe 10 minutes. It’s an experience that is beyond words for me. It’s utterly exquisite.”

In the near future, fans can catch Greinke performing for this year’s live streamed Soundquest Fest on March 28th, beginning at 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT on YouTube. SoundQuest Fest, launched in 2010 as a live festival in Tucson, Arizona, was created by ambient music pioneer Steve Roach. From March 26-28th, a continuous flow of streamed performances, audio-video wonder worlds and deep immersion zones will entrance electronic, ambient and visual art fans. For more about SoundQuest Fest, visit https://soundquestfest.live/

Greinke is an American jazz musician, ambient electronic composer, performer, sound sculptor, improvisor, and visual artist. He began composing and performing music in 1980 while studying meteorology at Pennsylvania State University, and moved to Seattle in 1982. There during that same year on his newly established label, Intrepid, he released three cassette albums (later re-released in vinyl and then digital formats), Before the Storm, Neanderthal String Quartet and Night and Fog. He has since released more than two dozen other recordings on various U.S. and European labels. He has composed music for film, video, dance, theatre, radio, and art installations. His music was used as the soundtrack for the trailer of Ron Howard’s film “The Missing.”

In 1993 Greinke founded the group LAND, featuring Lesli Dalaba (trumpet), Dennis Rea (guitar), Bill Rieflin (drums) and Fred Chalenor (bass). LAND released three albums between 1995 and 2001: Land, Archipelago, and Road Movies. LAND played live extensively, including a 1996 tour of China, Hong Kong, and Macau. In addition to his solo performance activities, Greinke is also one half of the duo Hana with Sky Cries Mary vocalist Anisa Romero. Hana has released two albums, Hana and Omen.

These days he is currently based in Tucson, Arizona. Greinke’s unique approach to his ambient work is to heavily layer, multitrack, and texture soundscapes, using the studio as an instrument. His early work often has a dark ambient quality, with his earlier solo albums often compared to works by Robert Rich, Brian Eno, and Vidna Obmana. His sound is always changing, like the weather, from rain and wind to endless blue skies with delicately drifting clouds.

In a recent interview published on Ello, Greinke talked about his compositional approach.

“My inspiration from the natural world is, as described above, strong. I’m fortunate to live in a house surrounded by natural desert, saguaros, a wide variety of cacti, small trees, desert scrub, lots of rock and dirt, and a variety of wildlife – coyotes, rabbits, deer, javelinas, snakes, a wide variety of birds, lizards, and some exotic insects. Undoubtedly, this has an influence on the kind of music I make, but much less direct than how, for instance, Cities in Fog was made.

“As for the weather and its influence on my work, I have always had a fascination with the weather. I spent a lot of time as a child gazing out the window. When it snowed, which was never often enough, I became obsessive about watching it fall. I ended up pursuing it in college and obtained a degree in meteorology from Penn State University, one of the best meteo schools in the country. I discovered, however, toward the end of my time there, that the academic side to studying meteorology did not interest me very much. What I love is my experience of various meteorological events, especially those that are visceral and visual. Over time I’ve become more focused and appreciative of the subtler and quieter aspects of these experiences – the feeling of the air when everything lines up perfectly – temperature, humidity, no wind or breeze, the quality of light – that to me is rare and very special and beyond words. Or the mood just after a desert rain, as the sun starts peeking through the remaining dark clouds, and the creosote bush releases its incredible fragrance.”

Other Weather was composed, arranged, and produced by Jeff Greinke, recorded at Another Room, Tucson, and Invisible Studio, Seattle; the Seattle session was engineered by Rob Angus, the album was mastered by Howard Givens, and is available for physical purchase in CD format and in 24-BIT AUDIOPHILE, CD QUALITY LOSSLESS, MP3 and streaming formats. The physical CD version of Other Weather arrives in a factory sealed 6-panel gatefold package that includes vibrant artwork, liner notes, a 4-page booklet, and exquisite package design by Daniel Pipitone.

Tracklist:
01 A Stretch of Sun 4:35
02 Rain Through the Night 4:01
03 Falling Sky 5:19
04 Rising Cumulus 4:28
05 Snow Across a Windswept Plain 9:06
06 Clouds Like Flying Saucers 4:20
07 Outflow 4:38
08 Storm Chaser 5:42
09 After the Rain 3:50
10 Icebreaker 7:26
11 Across the Sky 5:42