The story so far...
Dedalus - is an ongoing musical experiment of joe Wilford
...doors. This collection of over a decade's worth of material is the roadmap that makes up the Dedalus project - a path with many turns and several routes - and no clear destination aside from that of experiencing creative discovery. The journey is without maps. The dream and the bliss that resides within the soul is the flame that inspires the search. Welcome.
Blood & Brine - released December 2020
Letters from Wolferl - released December 2020
Ballad of a Country - released December 2018
Winterland Skies -or- Morning Star brings the Light - released March 2017
Shimmer - released April 2016
Vengeance Reckoning - released March 2016
Sol - released February 2016
Mist - released January 2016.
An Iowa native – Wilford spent over 15 years discovering and then redefining his sound in the competitive urban club scene of New York City’s Lower East Side. A raconteur-de-force with a 12-string guitar, he took part in a wide-range of musical projects, most notably the Trailside Rangers, frequently playing well known venues such as CBGB’s, Rodeo Bar and The Continental among others in the tri-state area. Despite critical acclaim, three independent releases and generous amounts of college-radio airplay nationwide as well as abroad, the Rangers were never able to take their indie status to the next level and after eight years, disbanded peacefully in 1999 to pursue other musical avenues.
Ultimately, Wilford found himself back in the heartland, amidst the vibrant music scene of Eastern Iowa, where he continues writing, recording and experimenting with a range of genres that span from acoustic rock, black metal dirges and gypsy flamenco guitar instrumentals to ambient electronica infused with dub-step beats and darkwave tones amongst a flurry of cinematic soundscapes.The 2012 release Invocation taps into the latter; experimenting with synth-based sonically ambient themes. Jackstraw Land gives a shout-out to author Cormac McCarthy's brilliant apocalyptic novel - 'The Road.' In Invocation, the protagonist seeks to challenge mortality - while Mercurial focuses on the individual struggle to raise one's spiritual awareness. From there the listener is treated to an aural landscape filled with literary and movie references ranging from Moby Dick (Ishmael) and Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' (Luna Jungle - Ozymandias remix) to Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' (The Great and Terrible) and the relatively obscure sci-fi classic cult film 'Logan's Run.' (LastDay). The layers of sonic texture throughout run deep - and there is no better example of this than the epic 'Samsara' which weaves together a tapestry of vastly different styles into a story of longing and lust.
2010's Wild Angels cuts a more straightforward path but no less tortured. It’s a ten-track collection of smoldering soliloquies, fraught with abstract gloom and apocalyptic drones. Several years in the making – the songs themselves (So it goes, Fuse, Victory) took on many different forms – starting out as simple acoustic compositions before morphing into a layered synthesis of piano, guitar and perhaps Wilford’s most restrained vocals. The lyrics invoke a seething unrest and yet remain radiant in their ability to define the beautiful within the bitterly cruel.
Santiago - se unio~ is an experiment in gypsy flamenco with a twist of Americana. Latin-inspired beats accompany a steady flux of singed - melodies evoked from the red dusts of deserts and the nylon strings of a classical guitar. The 2007 release was a creative departure from 2004's A Portrait of the Artist; a collection of 9 songs that each serve as personal tributes to Tom Gallison - Wilford's long-time friend who tragically passed away in February 2000. The songs echo sadness and loss - but also celebrate the creative spirit of Gallison that inspired all that knew him.
In the current era of 'singles' based releases as opposed to full albums, Wilford has focused more on releasing music in short bursts. 2016 saw a number of concurrent releases - 2017 and 2018 less so, yet there is more to come.
This collection of over a decade's worth of material is the roadmap that makes up the Dedalus project - a path with many turns and several routes - and no clear destination aside from that of experiencing creative discovery. The journey is without maps. The dream and the bliss that resides within the soul is the flame that inspires the search. Welcome. Open some...
...doors. This collection of over a decade's worth of material is the roadmap that makes up the Dedalus project - a path with many turns and several routes - and no clear destination aside from that of experiencing creative discovery. The journey is without maps. The dream and the bliss that resides within the soul is the flame that inspires the search. Welcome.
Blood & Brine - released December 2020
Letters from Wolferl - released December 2020
Ballad of a Country - released December 2018
Winterland Skies -or- Morning Star brings the Light - released March 2017
Shimmer - released April 2016
Vengeance Reckoning - released March 2016
Sol - released February 2016
Mist - released January 2016.
An Iowa native – Wilford spent over 15 years discovering and then redefining his sound in the competitive urban club scene of New York City’s Lower East Side. A raconteur-de-force with a 12-string guitar, he took part in a wide-range of musical projects, most notably the Trailside Rangers, frequently playing well known venues such as CBGB’s, Rodeo Bar and The Continental among others in the tri-state area. Despite critical acclaim, three independent releases and generous amounts of college-radio airplay nationwide as well as abroad, the Rangers were never able to take their indie status to the next level and after eight years, disbanded peacefully in 1999 to pursue other musical avenues.
Ultimately, Wilford found himself back in the heartland, amidst the vibrant music scene of Eastern Iowa, where he continues writing, recording and experimenting with a range of genres that span from acoustic rock, black metal dirges and gypsy flamenco guitar instrumentals to ambient electronica infused with dub-step beats and darkwave tones amongst a flurry of cinematic soundscapes.The 2012 release Invocation taps into the latter; experimenting with synth-based sonically ambient themes. Jackstraw Land gives a shout-out to author Cormac McCarthy's brilliant apocalyptic novel - 'The Road.' In Invocation, the protagonist seeks to challenge mortality - while Mercurial focuses on the individual struggle to raise one's spiritual awareness. From there the listener is treated to an aural landscape filled with literary and movie references ranging from Moby Dick (Ishmael) and Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' (Luna Jungle - Ozymandias remix) to Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' (The Great and Terrible) and the relatively obscure sci-fi classic cult film 'Logan's Run.' (LastDay). The layers of sonic texture throughout run deep - and there is no better example of this than the epic 'Samsara' which weaves together a tapestry of vastly different styles into a story of longing and lust.
2010's Wild Angels cuts a more straightforward path but no less tortured. It’s a ten-track collection of smoldering soliloquies, fraught with abstract gloom and apocalyptic drones. Several years in the making – the songs themselves (So it goes, Fuse, Victory) took on many different forms – starting out as simple acoustic compositions before morphing into a layered synthesis of piano, guitar and perhaps Wilford’s most restrained vocals. The lyrics invoke a seething unrest and yet remain radiant in their ability to define the beautiful within the bitterly cruel.
Santiago - se unio~ is an experiment in gypsy flamenco with a twist of Americana. Latin-inspired beats accompany a steady flux of singed - melodies evoked from the red dusts of deserts and the nylon strings of a classical guitar. The 2007 release was a creative departure from 2004's A Portrait of the Artist; a collection of 9 songs that each serve as personal tributes to Tom Gallison - Wilford's long-time friend who tragically passed away in February 2000. The songs echo sadness and loss - but also celebrate the creative spirit of Gallison that inspired all that knew him.
In the current era of 'singles' based releases as opposed to full albums, Wilford has focused more on releasing music in short bursts. 2016 saw a number of concurrent releases - 2017 and 2018 less so, yet there is more to come.
This collection of over a decade's worth of material is the roadmap that makes up the Dedalus project - a path with many turns and several routes - and no clear destination aside from that of experiencing creative discovery. The journey is without maps. The dream and the bliss that resides within the soul is the flame that inspires the search. Welcome. Open some...
