Flying Fantasy, by Alexander Turnquist

Flying Fantasy

by Alexander Turnquist

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$10 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK

Includes unlimited streaming of Flying Fantasy via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 1 day

$12 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Includes unlimited streaming of Flying Fantasy via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 1 day

$18 USD or more

1.	House of Insomniacs 07:31	buy track
2.	Finding the Butterfly 05:47	buy track
3.	Wildflower 06:19	buy track
4.	Red Carousel 08:47	buy track
5.	Flying Fantasy 06:43	buy track
6.	Cloud Slicing 02:18	buy track

about

Often, fantasy is seen as a recourse to escapism, as an imaginary distancing that allows a momentary glimpse of personal utopia, an ephemeral feeling ingrained in the thought of someplace other where a negative ‘I’ exists. It is in this negation, however, where fantasy comes back full circle and stops running away, becoming a kind of hope that confronts the here and now with the magnificence of possibility, dislocating what is permitted in favor of a million daydreams and a million pleasures. Like music, it betrays an immateriality that irks all architects of sound, all orderly suppositions of what it must or must not be, rejecting any and all discourses that state its inability to do. It is perhaps under this light that Flying Fantasy by Alexander Turnquist might be heard, having been conceived during a period of hardship where the danger of losing the ability to play guitar was ever-present. With tragedy always around the corner, the album swells with emotion, no longer supported by the grand gestures of virtuosity – always looking forward, always pulling fantasy down to a prowess that has no end – but by a deep connection between composer and music that relies on looking at past, future and present, that understands that what has no end is not the physicality of it but, like almost any fantasy, its fundamental uncertainty, the mystery with which all great art is brimming. Unlike past albums, this music has lost its strength, and it is much more profound for it.

It is also a collaborative effort, and the participation of musicians such as Christopher Tignor enrich what is already a series of amazing arrangements from Turnquist. Uncertainty, after all, leads beyond the individualism of virtuosity, perhaps because its ultimate consequence is a constant memento mori that serves as dissolution of the permitted, turning nods into smiles, smiles into hugs. Flying Fantasy has a tenderness to it that is very different from the artist’s other works, and it often slows down to contemplate ambient electronics and soft drones that appear to lie under the fingerpicking, the ‘reality’ of a type of sound that knows no bounds because it is constantly evading being defined by listeners’ ears. It is here where Turnquist differs from peers like James Blackshaw, in the sense that for Turnquist the transformation implied in virtuosic stream-of-consciousness does not lead to a path that is philosophically akin to minimalism (or, at least, to a conceptual maximalization of it), but to one that is much closer to, of all things, the emotional expanse of post-rock: every note has the potential to fill entire rooms and change them through sheer un-definition. And what is in our times more fantastic, more dramatically prone to utopia than post-rock? What other kind of music bursts most easily through clear-cut hearing by means not of avant-garde notions but less intellectually attractive and infinitely more awkward teenage visions of a life filled with the joy of feeling? I guess that, after all, in the heart of every sickness lies a feverish realization: there is a certain bliss to willing for a different path, one that longs for life while never for a moment denying the inevitability of death. A flying fantasy is a sun-drenched fantasy, and the sun will always burn the wings away.

In the end, I’m convinced that this is Turnquist’s best album to date, and it is the one where he can no longer only be regarded as a guitar player. Sure enough, the playing is great, but the perspective of the whole is what makes it acquire its intention, what gives the fantasy the weight it needs to come back and express all sorts of longings and fulfillments through each movement of the hands, creating harmonies out of the everyday, creating passionate meanings out of something that in principle is only technical. I cannot wait to hear what comes next! (David Murrieta- A Closer Listen)

credits

released June 10, 2014

Performers:

Alexander Turnquist, Scott Solter, Christopher Tignor, Marlan Barry, Andrew Hiller, Matthew O'Koren, Pamela Stein & Jeremy Thal

Recording & Mixing:

Scott Solter

Mastering:

Marlan Barry

license

about

Alexander Turnquist Kingston, New York

Alexander Turnquist is a Kingston , NY based multi-instrumentalist and composer most widely known for his use of the 12- string acoustic guitar as a driving force in creating landscape musical fantasies, expressing longings and fulfillments through movements and melody, creating harmonies out of everyday moments captured within a daydream. ... more

contact / help

Contact Alexander Turnquist

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Alexander Turnquist, you may also like:

Promises
by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra

supported by 8 fans who also own “Flying Fantasy”

hypnotic and incredibly moving marsplutomusic
go to album
In These Times
by Makaya McCraven

supported by 7 fans who also own “Flying Fantasy”

Brilliant album from start to finish. Immensely captivating. toms_zar
go to album
Urban Driftwood
by Yasmin Williams

supported by 6 fans who also own “Flying Fantasy”

I’m so grateful this crossed my path. This album is so beautiful. All the clear technique and mastery and vision are kinda secondary to the fact that this album brought me calm and joy during one of the most difficult times in my life. Yeah, grateful. David McCullough
go to album
Level One Mage
by Erik Gundel

Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, the latest from Erik Gundel is the best kind of sensory overload, full of sizzling electronics. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 16, 2022
go to album
Spirit Exit
by caterina barbieri

The Italian composer and synthesizer player crafts panoramic views, letting phrases blossom from small ideas into explosions. Bandcamp Album of the Day Jul 8, 2022
go to album
Still Life
by Igor Yalivec

featured on Bandcamp Radio Mar 7, 2022
go to album
Capacity
by Big Thief

supported by 5 fans who also own “Flying Fantasy”

some of the best and rawest writing on any album I've heard. been my favorite band for years and will continue to be. e
go to album