Police Guitarist Andy Summers Goes In Depth on His Exotic New Solo Album: Exclusive Video Premiere
Watch as Police guitarist Andy Summers discusses three tracks from his 14th solo album Triboluminescence, including the title track, "If Anything" and "Adinkra." The project, which arrives today via Flickering Shadow, follows 2015's Metal Dog – which was issued in conjunction with the home-video release of Summers' documentary Can't Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police.
"Triboluminescence is actually a scientific word that means creating light from dark, which I believe is a great metaphor for any creative act – and, especially, music,” Summers says. “I felt compelled to follow up the record I made last year, Metal Dog, where I was trying to go into a new territory — with not just a straight-ahead jazz or jazz fusion or rock or pop, but something very much my own genre. This record results from a lifetime’s worth of receiving influence, digesting it, and trying to create a new voice. I feel like I’m taking the Metal Dog album and moving on from there and trying to expand the writing, the tonal palette and this idea that I have about creating new music.”
Watch as Andy Summers Discusses 'If Anything'
Summers offers an overview of the new album and then explores the sustain-driven "If Anything" above; he discusses the West African-influenced "Adinkra" below. On the latter track, Summers is also featured playing all of the drums and percussion.
Elsewhere, Triboluminescence brings in exotic elements ranging from muscular '60s jazz ("Shadyland") to intriguing loops ("Elephant Bird" and "Haunted Dolls"), from pounding rhythm ("Gigantopithecus") to wild experimentalism ("Pukul Buny Bunye," which finds Summers creating fascinating guitar sounds with chopsticks). Meanwhile, the album-closing "Garden of the Sea" grew out of sessions with the Armenian cellist Artyom Manukyan.
Triboluminescence is out today. Summers won multiple Grammys during the Police's short, but wildly successful run from 1978's Outlandos d'Amour to 1983's Synchronicity. His solo career has also included work with Circa Zero.
Watch as Andy Summers Discusses 'Adinkra'
The Police Albums Ranked Worst to Best