The true test of originality for any musician comes when you hear an instrument being played and you instantly know who’s playing it. For electric guitarists, certainly Hendrix qualifies; Page and Clapton, too. Maybe Eddie Van Halen before the legion of imitators. You probably have your own list, but to us, standing toe-to-toe (or pick-to-pick) with those legends is Television guitarist and solo artist Tom Verlaine. His self-taught, jazz-influenced style, largely devoid of effects, and vibrato tone (oh, that tone!) makes any Verlaine solo unmistakably a Verlaine solo. That he was quite an accomplished, idiosyncratic songwriter is just a bonus. Real Gone Music is very, very proud to announce that we have arranged with the Verlaine estate to release Tom’s last three solo albums on LP, starting with his 1992 instrumental masterpiece Warm and Cool, which has never been released on vinyl in the U.S. Swirling within this album’s 14 compositions are hints of rock, jazz, country, surf, and even a little bit of the guitar noir found on Angelo Badalamenti’s soundtracks for David Lynch, all given brilliant new life in a fresh mastering for vinyl by long-time Verlaine collaborator Patrick Derivaz, who also played bass on the album. Simultaneously avant-garde and familiar-sounding, Warm and Cool is as contemporary and forward-thinking as any music coming out today, but—as the new liner notes by Verlaine’s life partner Jutta Koether point out—the album fits into a larger modern art and philosophical context. Indeed, reading Koether’s poetic love letter to her dear departed and listening to this gorgeous, daring music makes for a profound experience we are eager to share. Pink vinyl pressing to go with the artful choice of type hue on the front cover!
