photos by Chuck Deters
As progressive Warr guitarist JASON BLAKE prepares for the release of his new solo album, Imaginary Cages, through Wayfarer Records this month, an official video for the track “Lost Reveries” sees an exclusive premiere through Metal Injection.
A six-song progressive rock suite of solo Warr guitar, Imaginary Cages features some of BLAKE‘s most complicated work to date, boasting technical prowess in a bold but subdued setting. With delicate and tranquil chorus-drenched ambience, JASON BLAKE executes forty minutes of precision musicianship with no overdubs. The album was mixed by Tyler Rice at Transient Sound, mastered by Bob Katz at Digital Domain (Foghat, Sinead O’Connor, Necrophagist), and completed with artwork by Hajo Müller (Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson).
The “Lost Reveries” video was filmed by Chuck Deters. BLAKE reveals, “After I wrote ‘Lost Reveries,’ I knew that this was the song that I wanted to create a video for. It throws a lot of notes into a shorter song. I wanted the imagery to represent a dark dreamlike state. When it came time to filming, I found a boiler room in an older building that matched the vibe. When Chuck and I found the fan-like contraption, we knew that this was where we wanted to film.”
Metal Injection writes, “BLAKE‘s performance is entirely on the Warr Guitar, which is a twelve-string instrument incorporating the range of a guitar and bass, which lends a very coherent quality to the piece.”
Explore JASON BLAKE’s Imaginary Cages video for “Lost Reveries” first at Metal Injection RIGHT HERE.
Imaginary Cages will be released by Wayfarer Records on February 25th. Find preorders for the standard digital, 24 Bit High Res digital, and CD HERE. Also see performance videos for “Abstractions Of Thought” and “Obscured Clarity” HERE and watch for similar videos to see release over the weeks ahead.
The Warr Guitar is a twelve-string instrument incorporating the range of a guitar and bass. It is played by tapping the strings; a technique known as touchstyle guitar. When his primary band, Chicago-based instrumental/progressive metal trio Aziola Cry, returned from a fourteen-year hiatus with the Sensory Records release of their blazing The Ironic Divide last year, JASON BLAKE’s performance on the record was noticed and praised by critics and fans abroad. Within the group, he writes music featuring the rhythmic and melodic capabilities of the Warr Guitar in a band setting.
However, with his solo work, JASON BLAKE pushes the boundaries of the instrument while incorporating elements of progressive rock, ambient, and classical. Signed to Olympia, Washington-based Wayfarer Records, he released his first album for the label in June of 2021. Called, “an aural feast of different sounds,” by Sea of Tranquility, the album Fictional Mirrors was the first album of a planned progressive ambient trilogy titled The Ternary Instinct. While the other installments of that series are being formulated, BLAKE now returns with Imaginary Cages.
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