Mandolinist David Benedict is the new guy with Mile Twelve. He’s only been with them since last summer, but his addition had been a fait accompli for some time in advance. The Twelvesters knew they wanted him in the group, but he had a commitment with Missy Raines in Nashville to work through.
So he moved up to Boston to join the band, and is now set to release his new solo project, The Golden Angle. Those more math-minded among us will recognize that phrase as referring to a geometric concept relating to the circumference of a circle, one that occurs frequently in nature and which has been important in architecture since ancient times.
To kick off the album promo, David has agreed to let us premiere the title track here at Bluegrass Today. He shared a few words about how the tune came to be.
“After moving to Boston in early 2017 to join Mile Twelve, I started working on a collection of new instrumental string-band compositions. At that time, I randomly came across this geometric principle called “The Golden Angle,” and I became obsessed with the musical implications. I’m actually not much of a math person, and I’m still trying to get my head around this principle, honestly! But to my understanding, the basic idea is related to the Fibonacci Sequence and is embodied beautifully by the whorling pattern of leaves or petals on a plant stem. That idea of symmetrical spiraling and natural inevitability started to become a common theme in the music I was writing at the time. Ultimately it became the seed for a full-length album.
So in December of 2017, I made the trip from Boston down to Nashville to record the core of the album with a few of my favorite musicians. I was thrilled to work with bassist Missy Raines again, since my time playing in her band The New Hip. Was fortunate to also have Ross Martin on guitar, as well as Wes Corbett on banjo and the incredible Stuart Duncan on fiddle. The whole project was produced by mandolinist Matt Flinner who helped bring the whole project together with his sound creative direction. This is the title track of that album. It feels like this tune exemplifies The Golden Angle idea with the cyclical harmony and the winding nature of the melody. Be on the lookout for more singles in the upcoming months as well as a full album release later this year!”
The Golden Angle is available now to radio programmers at AirPlay Direct, and to consumers at all the popular download and streaming sites.
