Music
Approaching Andromeda is a self-titled EP released on February 22, 2019. This solo effort was the result of a long time passion project, including songs whose roots go back nearly 20 years. The album’s sound is dense instrumental music that fuses post-rock fundamentals with electronic music elements from the chill-out, and IDM, and ambient sub-genres.
By Howard Hardee
February 20, 2019
★★★★
The brainchild of Landon Lechner, a Raleigh-based guitarist and producer originally from Albuquerque, Approaching Andromeda’s self-titled debut fuses electronic beat making with the textures and timbres of guitar-driven post-rock across six intricately layered tracks, and it’s awesome. Lechner’s guitar work is on point throughout this instrumental album. His playing is technical without coming across as showy or unnecessary, a common pitfall for prog-rock musicians, and never sacrifices emotional communication for flash.
Lechner has observed of his own music that it “tends to feel both melancholy and hopeful.” Of the heavier moments on the album, the most spine-tingling moment occurs during the outro of the epic “Valse,” when a twinkling-star synthesizer arpeggiation abruptly gives way to a wall of thickly distorted guitars. But Approaching Andromeda isn’t strictly about brute force; airy synth pads, glitched-out drums, and spacey guitar sounds color often-beautiful downtempo sections.
The apparent attention to detail is remarkable, especially in headphones. It gives the impression of a meticulous solo musician who left no knob untweaked; each layer of instrumentation shifts dynamically, giving the listener a sense of continual motion. The swirling “East Bay Future” feels free-form and ambient until the complex drum pattern fades, and one realizes it’s not free-form at all, but organized mathematically.
Interested in using my music in your production?
Interested in using my music in your production? I'm into it.
Classical Compositions
The Simplest Things and Synchronicity are two commissioned original pieces that were written for and performed at weddings.
The notation was created in a coding program called Lilypond, which was a fairly intensive undertaking. There are unfortunately, a couple of minor errors in the notation, for example the high D♭ in measure 40 of Synchronicity should be a D♮. While the few errors seem to me, fairly obvious when playing through the pieces, I do expect to fix them eventually. As it has been at least 5 years since I wrote notation in Lilypond, I would need to re-learn the program to some extent, so to this point I have been so far very successfully putting it off. At any rate, feel free to grab the notation, and learn to play them yourself. Let me know if these pieces are used for any sort of public performance, I’d love to know about it and hear them played by another player!
The Simplest Things Notation
Synchronicity Notation
DJ Mixes
For my own wedding, I wanted to create something special for our reception music. This is the result of that idea. My wife and I picked out songs we each liked for this context, and over the course of about 2 weeks I put together this mix for the event. I’m really proud of the transitions in between songs, so please enjoy!
A guilty pleasure of mine is epic trance music. You heard right, the same guy that loves contemporary classical guitar and Autechre somehow also enjoys predictable 4-on-the-floor trance music. I can’t explain it either, all I can do is accept it. 2009 – 2010 was the peak of my interest in this type of music, and this mix (created under the ridiculous pseudonym DJ Fight Club on Ice) was constructed after having some amazing and vivid dreams while listening to some of these songs.
Get in Touch
Phone
+ 1 (919) 322-8158
landonoftheguitar@gmail.com
Location
USA