I’ve been aware of Nick Jaina for years due to mutual friends and just being fellow musicians swimming around the PNW creative ecosystem, but it was only via the miraculous TELEPHONE project that Nick finally made an appearance on Ball of Wax. (How was that a whole year ago already?) This instrumental volume happened to coincide with the release of Nick’s mostly instrumental album Elemental: Music for a Film, which opens with the subtly gorgeous, achingly tender “Cauterize.”
“Cauterize” is propelled by soft, yet insistent piano 1/8 notes that carry through the whole piece, while other piano voices weave in and out in sweet counterpoint. Occasionally a guitar string or two is heard as well, and sheets of undulating tone that might have begun as a guitar or an organ lap in and out like a sonic tide rolling in . . . and then out. Like “Cauterize,” the entire Elemental album is a rich and fulfilling musical experience that deserves your ears’ attention (and your wallet’s money).