"We start in "The Garden Spot," where a chorus of Rocky Mountain toads introduces a bright clarinet melody. No mere scene-setting or shorthand, field recordings are integral here and throughout the album; the instrumentation accompanies the sounds of nature rather than overpowering them. When Sage works his studio magic to sound like a full band, as on "Witch Grass," one pictures it jamming on the back porch on a starry night with the full participation of the surrounding creatures-at one point, the session pauses and"
"Sage is an accomplished musician, but he's far more interested in creating moments of serendipity than in showing off his chops. Much of Tender / Wading is naive in a positive sense. The primary instruments are piano and clarinet, both relatively recent additions to his skill set, and the feeling of woodshedding pervades-in this case literally, in his barn. Album centerpiece "Open Space Properties""
Field recordings of wildlife are integral to the album, with instrumentation designed to accompany rather than overpower natural sounds. Clarinet and piano provide tentative, repeating melodies that are gradually joined by guitar, drums and fluttering electronics to build communal, back-porch textures. A naive, woodshedding sensibility pervades the work, with studio techniques used to suggest full-band interplay while leaving space for the surrounding landscape. Album moments include a toad-introduced clarinet opening, a door-unlatched beginning to the centerpiece that expands outward, and a closing video that feeds found slides through a machine-learning model against geese calls and piano.
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