Comments & Discussion About This Session

Recorded in the One Night Music Studio, Santa Barbara, CA on February 13, 2009.

Hylton Edingfield and Takuma Ono of Permanent Starlight joined One Night Music on a very lucky Friday the 13th in February.  Permanent Starlight is an ironic name for the band as it is, in fact, very ephemeral: taking the shape of whatever musicians Hylton surrounds himself with amongst and in between his travels around the world.  On this night, Takuma joined Hylton for the most recent manifestation of Permanent Starlight, bringing keyboards and percussion to accompany Hylton’s nylon string guitar and vocals.

Hylton Edingfield is a worldly fellow, bringing influences from across the globe into his songwriting.  Invocation and Bell Song recall his time spent in Scotland, with the latter representing Hylton’s interpretation of the Sunday bells that he would wake to weekly. A Thousand Leaves and Kotodama pay homage to his time spent in Japan.  Kotodama is sung entirely in Japanese and, as Hylton explains, took months to write because he had to discuss the lyrics with hundreds of Japanese locals.

The instrumentation used in the formation of Permanent Starlight for this One Night Music session is at first striking, but makes perfect sense once the music begins.  Invocation and Kotodama find Takuma banging away on a midi controller to create a low, resonant tom sound that fits peculiarly well with Hyltons humble nylon string guitar and his versatile vocals.  Hylton’s music tells stories and explains scenarios from other lands.  As vast as his influences are, Hylton’s dynamic range, vocal timbres, and musical styles span an equally vast array of songwriting. 

Be sure to check out the extra videos for this session: an interview with Hylton and Takuma as well as a post session video of Hylton covering Bridges and Balloons by Joanna Newsom.