Sam Wenc: The Experimental Language of the Pedal Steel Guitar

Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on guitarist and composer Sam Wenc.

Wenc is a Philadelphia-based artist who has spent nearly a decade building one of the more distinctive bodies of work in American experimental music, mostly under the name Post Moves.

Now he's released his first album under his own name. It's called Language at an Angle, and it came out on Lobby Art Editions in January. The record grew out of a year of live performances—from Philadelphia to Japan—and it captures Sam doing something specific with pedal steel guitar: striking it, bowing it, treating it as both a sound source and a physical object. The result sits somewhere between drone, jazz, and a kind of American folk music you can't quite place.

Sam's here to walk us through the record, his move to Philadelphia, and what it means to finally put his own name on the work.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Sam Wenc's Language at an Angle)

—

Dig Deeper

• Artist and Album:

• Visit Sam Wenc at samwenc.com and follow him on Instagram
• Purchase Sam Wenc's album Language at an Angle from Bandcamp or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice
• Lobby Art Editions — Sam Wenc's label, releasing Language at an Angle and his previous catalog

• Susan Alcorn:

• Susan Alcorn — official website of the pedal steel pioneer to whom Language at an Angle is dedicated
• And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar — Alcorn's landmark 2007 solo album
• Susan Alcorn: Revolutionary Voice of the Pedal Steel Guitar — The Tonearm's tribute, including a full conversation with Alcorn on her album CANTO
• Susan Alcorn obituary — WRTI

• Collaborators:

• Sam Yulsman — pianist on Language at an Angle; studied with George Lewis at Columbia
• Bark Culture — the Philadelphia trio of Victor Vieira-Branco (vibraphone), John Moran (bass), and Joey Sullivan (drums); members appear in Wenc's live band
• Victor Vieira-Branco — vibraphonist and Bark Culture leader
• Bark Culture — Warm Wisdom — the trio's 2024 debut album

• Venues:

• Roulette Intermedium — Brooklyn venue where Wenc held his album release show
• The Stone — New York experimental music venue referenced in the episode

• Musical References and Influences:

• George Lewis — composer, trombonist, and Columbia University professor; Sam Yulsman trained with him
• Okkyung Lee — South Korean cellist and improviser; Wenc cites Alcorn's improvisations with her as influential
• Marshall Allen / Sun Ra Arkestra — Marshall Allen, still active in Philadelphia's Germantown neighborhood, is mentioned by Wenc as part of the city's deep musical lineage
• Olivier Messiaen — composer whose work Susan Alcorn famously transposed for pedal steel
• Víctor Jara — Chilean singer-songwriter; Alcorn covered his songs

• Additional Context:

• Mississippi Records — the independent archival label Wenc manages alongside his own music work
• Sam Wenc — Post Moves: Heart Music — released on Where to Now? Records, representative of his work under the Post Moves alias

—

• Dig into this episode's complete show notes at podcast.thetonearm.com

—

• Did you enjoy this episode? Please share it with a friend! You can also rate The Tonearm ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

• Subscribe! Be the first to check out each new episode of The Tonearm in your podcast app of choice.

• Looking for more? Visit podcast.thetonearm.com for bonus content, web-only interviews + features, and the Talk Of The Tonearm email newsletter. You can also follow us on Bluesky, Mastodon, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

• Be sure to bookmark our online magazine, The Tonearm! → thetonearm.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.