David Daniell

Guitarist David Daniell is such an active collaborator and curator, it's easy to think of him in relation to other musicians first and as a solo artist second. His work in the trio San Augustin, his partnerships with Loren Connors, Rhys Chatham, Douglas McCombs, and Jeph Jerman, and the myriad great releases on the label he runs, Antiopic, are all filled with excellent exchanges and uncanny, almost telepathic communication. His strongest such effort might be his most recent, a live collaboration with Christian Fennesz and Necks drummer Tony Buck. It resulted in the 2010 LP Knoxville, a stunning maelstrom of shimmering textures and forceful, almost metal-like drones.

But it would be impossible to forge such fruitful partnerships without being a skillful artist in one's own right, and Daniell's solo career has been just as impressive, if not as recognized. All five of his solo albums are thoughtful explorations of his ideas and instruments, but the best is perhaps his second, 2007's Coastal. On it, he plays drums, guitar and dulcimer, running them all through electronics to create tall, thick waves of sound. In a way, it's a collaboration with himself, so it retains all the guts, beauty and power of his better-known works with others.

Maybe thinking of his music in two categories—alone and with others—is beside the point. The way he layers and builds his sounds into massive mixes, there's never just one thing going on, no matter how many people are involved. —Marc Masters