Dietrich Gosser

“Dietrich Gosser makes folk-y bedroom pop that sounds big and inviting, often with the help of drummer and avant-percussionist Dan Kuemmel. With or without the atmospherics, though, Gosser’s music has a quiet, unassuming quality that can set a convincing mood with just a few patient notes…” –The Onion AV Club

Dietrich Gosser’s songs are emergency cigarettes discovered in the back of your dresser drawer, fixes for cravings you didn’t anticipate but somehow planned for.

He’s the best kind of storyteller–one who knows the tales you’ll remember are grounded in the recognizable but torqued to the edge of disaster or the edge of escape.

This new record is next level. But if you call it a departure, he’ll tell you that you’re wrong.

He’s right, of course. The same ingredients are here. Same writer, same voice. The same strange landscape of a curious heart. So, fine. It’s not a departure. It’s an evolution.

Gosser’s new full-length Oh to Begin! does not forsake his earlier works’ folk trappings, but it’s not overly concerned with them either. Metallic synthesizer washes and resonant bass pulsate around guitar and vocal layers at the center of the title song. “Oh to begin…your life again!” Gosser delivers the line with a sense of resignation and a hint of wistful reverie.

Recorded over the past year with producer Jeremiah Nelson, Oh to Begin! is bigger and brasher than anything Gosser has attempted before, but it’s also more precise. Gosser’s voice is the focus here, and Nelson ornaments it nicely. Gorgeous supporting vocals from Monica Martin (PHOX) and Paul Otteson, the romantic-sinister bass of Ben Willis, and the expressive drumming of longtime collaborator Dan Kuemmel add color and draw meaning out of Gosser’s elliptical and mysterious storytelling.

There is an expansiveness to this record that will sweep you up, and from the simple folk balladry of Carolina to the blissed-out Laurel Canyon vibe of Gloria and It’s True…, Gosser shows full ownership of these songs. Full steerage of his course into a blurred horizon of opportunity and regret, despondency and hope.