1+1 = ? by Tom Dyer

Everything In The World Is Returning To A State Of Nature video : https://youtu.be/APWj6qfB0qU

Songs of Frogs video: https://youtu.be/a53fw0JoxQI

Barbra video: https://youtu.be/Gr8dDawdJas

In this latest rendition of the Tom Dyer Saga we step away from his usual pop/rock meanderings and head deep into left field for something strange and beautiful. Is this Dyer’s masterpiece or just a bucket full of indulgence?

1+1 = ? is an album of collaborations. Tom Dyer and mostly one other person, trying to make a sound that is interesting, pure, unfettered. The orchestrated opener, “Everything In The World Is Returning To A State Of Nature” started living in Dyer’s head in 2004 while riding the commuter train to Boston and looking at rust. A 2017 call to Jim of Seattle finally brought it to vibrant life. The clangorous train-wreck song “Death At Mounts Road” did not exist in any form until Tom and Amy Denio walked in the recording studio on a January 2018 Saturday morning.

More than half of these songs do not have drums. Most are slow. Some songs were written prior to the collaboration, others like the psycho-matic “Alaska (Put It In Your Head)” with The OF’s John Carey are pure improvisation. Ornette Coleman’s “A Girl Named Rainbow” was purchased as sheet music in 1977 and was the final song recorded for the album, in 2019.


Photo by Howie Wahlen
Dyer: “I started this album almost ten years ago without knowing it. The songs on this album were all one-offs. Accidents. While this album was taking its slow course, I completed seven other albums. Along the way accidents kept progressing, songs that just didn’t fit elsewhere. Some became singles. Some just hid. It was only when Amy came to Olympia for a day and we recorded “Mounts Road” that I realized there was a thread between them. These one-off orphans were all collaborations with one other person, and I was the glue. Since then I recorded three more songs with various collaborators and one by accident. Now it is done.”

This album stands alone as an artifact. These songs will not be performed in public. There will probably be a video or two, but don’t hold your breath. This is sufficient.

As you no doubt know, it is pretty hard for me to have any perspective on the album at this point, but let me say this. I think that some folks will probably think this to be a bunch of avant garde foolishness. I don’t think that at all. I think this is beautiful music, not quite The String Quartet Tribute to The Velvet Underground and Nico, but beautiful. It is pure to the essence of my soul and that is all I can do. As is typical for many musicians, my favorite track is the last one I recorded, Ornette Coleman’s A Girl Named Rainbow. Whatever one likes or does not like about my music, I think it is encapsulated there. And I do hope you like it.

I must take a moment to thank the folks that participated on the album: in order of appearance - Jim of Seattle, Kat Dyer, Amy Denio, Ben Dyer, Roger Royset, Joe Cason, John Carey, Kenny Smith, Phil Herschi and Mark Brunke. Most of them had no idea they were working on an album because I didn’t at the time. They were all a delight to work with!
I have a new video for “Everything In the World Is Returning To A State Of Nature.” I tried to make it beautiful too, so I hope you like it. Thanks to the folks that helped get this off the ground: Maggie Teachout, Dante & Eros Faulk, Marc Sterling, Garrett Tatsumi, Dan Neelands, Dan King, and Carlton Lonergan IV. Bravo all!

Tom Dyer is a Pacific NW singer, musician, songwriter, producer with 22 albums and many more singles and tracks, most recently "Irish Tour 2024", 12 songs written in one hour after returning from Ireland. “His (Olympia album) is a glorious, beautifully presented project … remarkable.” Graham Reid – Elsewhere.
Find more releases as Tom Dyer & True Olympians, The Icons, Colorplates and Me Three.

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