Tom Verlaine Warm and Cool (LP, colored Vinyl)

(Real Gone Music) 14 tracks, pink vinyl, with personal notes by Tom Verlaine's partner Jutta Koether

The true test of a musician's originality is when you play an instrument and immediately know who plays it. Among electric guitarists, this certainly applies to Hendrix, but also to Page and Clapton. Perhaps also Eddie Van Halen, before there was a whole series of imitators. You probably have your own list, but for us, TV guitarist and solo artist Tom Verlaine is on a par with these legends. His self-taught, jazz-influenced style, largely without effects, and his vibrato tone (oh, that tone!) make every Verlaine solo unmistakably a Verlaine solo. That he was also 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 US. The 14 compositions on this album contain echoes of rock, jazz, country, surf and even a bit of guitar noir, as found on Angelo Badalamenti's soundtracks for David Lynch. All of this was brought back to life in a new mastering for vinyl by his longtime Verlaine colleague Patrick Derivaz, who also played bass on the album. Sounding at once avant-garde and familiar, Warm and Cool is as contemporary and forward-thinking as any music being released today, but - as the new liner notes by Verlaine's partner Jutta Koether emphasize - the album fits into a larger context of modern art and philosophy. Reading Koether's poetic love letter to her beloved deceased and listening to this great, bold music is indeed a profound experience that we would like to share with you. Pink vinyl pressing to match the artful choice of font color on the front cover!