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about this album
Above the clouds and between the folds comes Stillness in Motion, the ethereal label debut by American guitarist and composer Stu Pender for New York’s experimental Youngbloods imprint. Across nine ephemeral pieces, Stu’s work achieves a blissful amalgam of ambient soundscapes, serene vocals, and six-stringed daydreams floating in a phantasmic, dream-like state. Stillness in Motion, both as a concept and album, finds meaning in the context of lockdown. Prior to 2020, Pender’s life as a studio musician and performer proved complicated and arhythmic. Days were consumed by teaching guitar lessons and apprenticing at a local piano repair shop while nights were streaked by a flurry of rehearsals, recording sessions, and performances with contemporaries Photay and Pender’s band, Brooklyn Jazz/Hip-Hop outfit Poetic Thrust. In many ways, this is what Pender had aspired to become. A graduate of SUNY Purchase’s prestigious music program and a student of the legendary ECM pioneer John Abercrombie, he strived to find success as a performer. He moved to Brooklyn and began planting roots as a go-to guitar savant, collaborating with local up-and-comers Elijah Wolf, Allison Ponthier, Kareem Ali, and Topaz Jones and performing at iconic and trend-setting venues including Beacon Theatre, MoMA PS1, and the United Nations Assembly Hall. Pender’s career performing with his peers has been fulfilling and promising, albeit exhausting. Making a point to fill the liminal spaces of his schedule by cr
