Luke Norton, an NC based guitarist, released his first album, Reservoir, via Halloween on Raspberry Hill after years of touring and recording with artists Angel Olsen, H.C. McEntire, Little Wings, Sluice, Molly Burch and many more.
Reservoir is both a lament for a restless life and an embrace of the life that comes after committing to a place. On the surface many of these songs seem to yearn for motion and wildness but a deeper listen reveals a more conflicted sentiment. In 'Magnolia' he hypnotically chants 'I won't ever be ready' while Rock Heater and Paradise express a deep and unexpected contentment in a slower more caring life, constructing a narrator that is searching for vitality while being mesmerized by the cycles of daily life. Other songs offer a more nostalgic perspective, placing characters amongst the people and cities of their past and reckoning with why they left in the first place.
Much of the album was written in the solitude of rural Orange County, NC but the engine of the record is the band that performs it. Reservoir was realized with the help of NC natives Alex Bingham (Hiss Golden Messenger), Oliver Child-Lanning (Fust, Sluice), Matt Douglas (The Mountain Goats), Justin Morris (Sluice, Fust), Alli Rogers (Sylvan Esso, Bon Iver, Samia), and Joe Westerlund (Bon Iver, Sylvan Esso, Califone). The combination of studio recordings at Betty's in Chapel Hill and the lush guitar arrangements recorded at Norton's home creates a feeling of reaching out while looking inward. Ultimately Reservoir is a search for balance, and while listening to it, it's hard to say whether you're observing from the shore or rocking side to side in a small boat somewhere between rushing and still waters.