Quiet Cowboy – Ambient

Today, Boise/NYC duo Ron Raymond and Michael Chacon, known together as Quiet Cowboy, release Ambient, a four-track EP that “joins the gritty street of New York City to the pristine wilderness of the Boise Mountains in Idaho. It’s very much of the genre, it checks all the boxes – it’s achingly gorgeous, it’s acoustic guitar, it’s pedal steel, we’re never getting sick of it, we can’t get enough of it, pour it all over me.

This is ambient country. But then again, it isn’t. There’s something meta, something that feels intentional in the bending of the strings. The album artwork is very geocities digital glitch art, and upon reflection on the name Quiet Cowboy, I think this might be vaporwave ambient country? This isn’t a put-down, it’s to say that there feels like a very self-aware performance here, a winking at the genre altogether. And I think it’s needed. And they have earned the right to critique the genre because they’ve mastered it.

“Quiet Cowboy are continually creating wide open yet deeply internalized spaces, the music serves as both a refuge from the chaos of the external world and a lens through which to engage while maintaining a sense of equanimity. Serene sonic landscapes, further exploring the ambient textures of the pedal steel guitar and acoustic guitar. 

Ambient EP is out today on Declared Goods. Get it on Bandcamp.