NorCal Guitarist and Singer-Songwriter Piet Dalmolen Unveils Debut Solo LP Time Stands Still

Dalle scogliere costiere del Triangolo Emerald della California del Nord, il chitarrista, cantante e compositore PIET DALMOLEN presenta con orgoglio TIME STANDS STILL, il suo tanto atteso debutto solista disponibile il 17 gennaio 2025. Con otto composizioni eclettiche, questo talismano risuona attraverso un ambizioso amalgama di sublime rock psicedelico, soulful jazz blues e indie-americana. Bobbing e tessuto in mezzo alla chimica fondamentale di bassi, tamburi e varie tastiere, la grande chitarra di Piet e le vocali sottovalutate si fondono per creare un vaso denso e potente di gioia e vulnerabilità.

Un veterano ingegnere di studio e chitarrista di sessione per due decenni, Dalmolen ha girato a livello nazionale a metà autunno con Jam Upstarts Nucleus, e successivamente gigged con numerose band del nord della California. In questi giorni è in modalità DIY su più ruoli per questo progetto di passione intensamente personale. Ably assisted by Matt Engel on keyboards, Tommy Fitzmaurice on drums, and Ian Taylor on bass, TIME STANDS STILL was tracked across several sessions in 2023 at Odyssey Studios, a rustic barn situated on a prairie overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Here Piet Dalmolen was able to keep his focus solely on creativity and bandleading, and once the basic tracks were laid down, he overdubbed additional guitar and vocals at his own Universal Balance Studios in Arcata, CA, throughout 2024.

Taking in stride some big personal life changes after the disruption of the pandemic, and as an enthusiastic new surfer, PIET DALMOLEN took a much-needed vacation to Maui in the summer of 2023. It was an influential trip for Piet that resulted in most of the music heard on TIME STANDS STILL. This intentional collection reveals a reluctant poet reawakened, mining inspiration from life’s trials and tribulations, and discovering knowledge of self amid the glorious environs of sacred Hawaiian Islands. Piet was staying in Lahaina when the dry hurricane winds swept the now infamous fires down from the mountain into town, and he fled on foot with guitar on his back, eventually hitchhiking to the airport.

PIET DALMOLEN had spent the previous 15 years gigging with other bands and playing covers, and while grateful to be playing regularly, it was a long dry spell from creating his own music. Feeling inspired to dive back in and with a wealth of new material, he picked his local dream team of musicians and watched it all fall into place.

“I love my band for their talent, aesthetic, and easy-going personalities,” says Piet. “The older I get the more I appreciate having the right people that I can rely on and have fun with, and thankfully they believe in my musical vision.”

TIME STANDS STILL was written, produced, mixed, and mastered all by PIET DALMOLEN. On this solo opening salvo, PIET DALMOLEN monologues abstract musings, illustrated with ruminations on love, loss, fatherhood, mortality, and new beginnings. Sturdy songcraft couched in a bare-bones analog aesthetic, the gritty grooves get drizzled with earthy textures and tasty guitar tones, whispering sweet melodies that make the eyes well up and chest weigh heavy. Music manifested in the wake of seismic change, waves of grief and personal evolution, TIME STANDS STILLtraverses a wide swath of emotional and sonic topography: Floydian dreamscapes, prog-scented improv, sizzling surf-rock, while touching a plethora of points between.

The track “Being” serves as a lyrical centerpiece. Piet wrote the first chorus on his hotel balcony anticipating the arrival of the Maui storm, and the second chorus on the plane ride home. “The pretty guitar coda is something that just came out of me the morning of the fires,” says Piet, “before we had any idea what was to come. And the wave sounds are my own field recording from the trip, not stock. It feels poetic to have them timelessly etched into a record that means so much to me.”