David Grubbs is one of the most influential musicians of his generation, with a musical CV that includes such bands as Squirrel Bait, Bastro and Gastr del Sol. Moving forward eccentrically from the straight-ahead hardcore punk of Squirrel Bait, David increasingly infused his songcraft with an experimental strain, culminating in the discography of Gastr del Sol, who drew widespread interest with the ways in which they combined so-called ‘songs’ with experimental music. Participating in the reinvigorated Red Krayola during this time exposed David to the formative tutelage of Mayo Thompson as well. However, after the gradually more streamlined Gastr period concluded with ‘Camoufleur’, David’s output became more segregated – the albums of pop songs were more focused, more pop, and the more experimental projects (including duo recordings with Mats Gustafsson, Nikos Veliotis, and Loren Connors, not to mention the entire catalogue of his Blue Chopsticks label) became more unrelenting.

Flash forward to 2013: Drag City release the sixth and latest David Grubbs album of songs, ‘The Plain Where The Palace Stood’, which finds David once again twining together the diverse strands of his vast interests. As in the days of Gastr del Sol, songs float in idiosyncratic yet exceptionally unhurried arrangements.

‘The Plain Where The Palace Stood’ features vocals on just four of the eleven tracks, yet the album as whole flows and breathes effortlessly alongside the most critically acclaimed releases of his great catalogue, not to mention his contemporaries and kindred artists, such as Oren Ambarchi, Scott Walker, Talk Talk, and Sunn O))).

This is a process begun on David\’s previous pop album, ‘An Optimist Notes The Dusk’, nearly four years previous. Despite the fluid activity of collaborations – many of which have been released in the time since (and several others coming to fruition this year) – patience, meditation and time were required to afford the depth and detail to ‘The Plain Where The Palace Stood’. The effect is both striking and tangible; the glass partition which all too often separates genre-spanning rock and academic experimentation shatters under Grubbs’s langourously insistent, idiosyncratic, immediately recognizable songs and arrangements.

‘The Plain Where The Palace Stood’ is the sixth David Grubbs solo album since 1998. During that time he has released music on both his own Blue Chopsticks label as well as others; both solo and in collaboration with Mats Gustafsson, Tony Conrad, Loren Connors, John McEntire, Noël Akchoté, Stephen Prina, Quentin Rollet, Nikos Veliotis, Susan Howe, Andrea Belfi and Stefano Pilia, to name only a few.

The world is about to get a lot Grubbsier – the 2013 – 2014 annum includes a collaborative performance work with Angela Bulloch at the Centre Pompidou entitled
‘The Wired Salutation’; David’s role in The Wingdale Community Singers’ justreleased
album ‘Night, Sleep, Death’; a new trio recording with Andrea Belfi and Stefano Pilia; a featured spot in the documentary film ‘Parallax Sounds’; and the book ‘Records Ruin The Landscape: John Cage, The Sixties, And Sound Recording’, out on Duke University press either later this year or in 2014.

The super-intense image detailed on the cover of ‘The Plain Where The Palace Stood’
is by the acclaimed contemporary artist John Sparagana.