Quicksilver Daydream

Any time a band cites psychedelic-folk godfathers Pearls Before Swine and film-composer legend Ennio Morricone as influences, let’s just say our curiosity gets the best of us. Quicksilver Daydream is a Brooklyn-based outfit led by Adam Lytle that’s an extension of longer-running band Wild Leaves. After forming in 2016 and releasing debut LP Echoing Halls last June, Quicksilver Daydream is back February 9 with a new EP, the five-song A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame. Adding keyboardist Glenn Forsythe (Dark North) to the lineup of guitarist Joey Deady, bassist Brett Banks and drummer Cole Emoff, Lytle cut the EP live to tape on his Tascam 388, with TW Walsh (Foxygen, Damien Jurado) handling mastering duties after the recording sessions were done. We are proud to premiere A Thousand Shadows track “Raven’s Eye” today on magnetmagazine.com. Says Lytle of the song, “‘Raven’s Eye’ came together during an acoustic practice at Cole’s old apartment in Greenpoint. We were at the point, as a band, where we could let collective intuition lead. I played a riff that was more aggressive than anything we’d done up to that point. Upon hearing it, the group jumped in, and the structure rode in on the resulting wave of energy. Lyrically, it’s a Bergman-like tale of an encounter with the personification of death. Ever since I can remember, my dreams have been haunted by thoughts of mortality. Nothing too morbid, but moving nonetheless. They serve as a reminder of the brevity of life and the virtue of living every day as if it’s the last. ‘Raven’s Eye’ attempts to bring that chase to life.” Check out “Raven’s Eye” below. - Magnet Magazine

Quicksilver Daydream is an experimental psychedelic-folk band led by Adam Lytle. Their recordings combine brooding surrealistic lyrics with a nebulous mix of mellotron strings, woozy synthesizers, soaring guitars, and reverberating vocals. The band draws from a deep pool of influences, owing as much to early psychedelic pioneers Pearls Before Swine and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, as they do to the compositions of Ennio Morricone and Baudelaire. Coyote Spirit Child is their latest single from their forthcoming EP A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame (Out February 9). - Folk Radio UK

Starting as the DIY musical project of Brooklynite Adam Lytle, Quicksilver Daydream truly burst onto the music landscape with its debut LP Echoing Halls earlier this year. But the brooding psych-folk outfit is already preparing a new EP, A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame, which is due out on Feb. 9. The band's latest single, 'Ferryman,' is drawn from this collection, offering a preview of the EP's expanding sonics and lyrical insights.

According to Lytle, he drew inspiration for 'Ferryman' from the classic novel Siddhartha.

"I wrote Ferryman a few years ago after reading [Herman] Hesse's Siddhartha," says Lytle. "In the story, young Siddhartha meets a ferryman (Vasudeva) who acts as his guide, both across the river and towards enlightenment. In one beautiful moment he asks Siddhartha, 'Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.' This song is a reflection on the meaning of that idea." - The 405

It's hard to listen to Quicksilver Daydream's latest single, "Ferryman," and not feel as if you're transported to the River Styx, slowly gliding along dark waters. The Brooklyn-based psych-rocker's new song is dreamy and deliberate; slow instruments punctuated by drawling, echoing vocals. Listen to "Ferryman" streaming below. - The Deli Magazine

At Mercury Lounge, Lytle on vocals and guitar was backed by lead guitarist Joey Deady, guitarist and Mellotron player Glenn Forsythe, bassist Brett Banks, and drummer Cole Emoff. Quicksilver Daydream’s sound owed a serious debt to 1960s psychedelia, with Lytle’s cloudy vocals and the band’s trippy guitar lines and shimmering ambient backdrops. Lytle performed like a singer-songwriter, but not the standard folkie or confessional model; his lyrical flow was rooted in an avant garde movement from an earlier era and his adept band provided intriguing musical accompaniment that gave electric flesh to the skeleton. Quicksilver Daydream’s strength was in wrapping this imaginative initiative around a vintage genre. More experimental than commercial, the songs were vehicles for Lytle’s creativity, which paired light melodies with somewhat darker and more complex arrangements. The captivating allure of Quicksilver Daydream’s set was that a listener could not predict where the compositions would venture next. - Aquarian Weekly

The name Quicksilver Daydream evokes images of horse-drawn caravans crossing the vast deserts of the southwest USA in search for riches and a new life. These are the days when the horizon stretched for miles and uninterrupted by the resident cacti, rattlers, coyotes, and hares. The arid lands, however, have a mystique to them. They are filled with mystery and enchantment, which also describe the band’s new EP, A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame.

Led by mastermind Adam Lytle, Quicksilver Daydream have created a mythology that is part fantasy and reality. It is the desert meeting the ocean, and where the past and the future collide. A late-’60/early-’70s, Gothic psychedelic-folk soundscape reverberates across each of the record’s five songs, and it provides the canvas for Lytle’s imaginative storytelling. Fittingly, the EP commences with the aptly titled, “Beyond The Iron Gate”. With its cosmic, groovy vibe, Lytle distantly narrates a woman’s abandonment, her eventual enslavement, and the only place she can find salvation – within “the garden of her mind”.

“Coyote Spirit Child”. The tune is a psychedelic-folk masterpiece that extends from the groovy and trippy vibe and Lytle’s fantastic songwriting. The song, however, isn’t pure fantasy, as he describes one person’s experience with modernization. How he has witnessed nature transformed into concrete jungles and run over by the “big wheels turning”. Quicksilver Daydream then deliver their most extravagant number in “Ferryman”, which takes trippy to dreamy heights. As the mellotron and the harrowing electric guitar strike in the background, Lytle brings us inside the mind of a vagabond who has seen it all. This slow, psychological journey is tantalizing in both the beauty of the music and the deep-seated yet simplistic desires of the lost soul.

Like the sunshine bursting through the clouds, “Ravens Eye” swoops in and rattles the air with its cool, groovy rhythms and fuzzy guitar riffs. The tale could be from another age of the Game of Thrones saga, where the raven is a woman who comes to us in our dreams. Or it could be the preceding chapter to “Coyote Spirit Child”, where our protagonist is touched by a higher being and given his purpose on this planet. A purpose that only he knows.

The finale comes in the form of “Brother Mountain”, an upbeat and even optimistic psych-folk-rock number. As a haziness akin to The Beatles’ psychedelia fills the air, Lytle delivers a tale that could be mistaken for a Native American legend. “Brother Mountain” in this case is either a deity or a sacred place around which all life and its events revolve and evolve. It represents serenity, peace, and hope, things that we still continue to seek today. Or maybe it is simply just a place or a person in which / whom we place our complete faith. Whatever the case may be, Lytle and his band mats have done the extraordinary – allowed our imaginations to run wild and make us believe in the mythology he (or is it we?) have crafted.

A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame is out, and it is available on Bandcamp. - The Revue

New Noise Magazine is pleased to bring forth the full premiere of A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame by Quicksilver Daydream. The EP kicks off with “Beyond The Iron Gate,” sending the listener into a vintage tinged age of ethereal rock music. There’s plenty of layers and melodies to the song, showcasing the overall writing wonder of the New York act. The psychedelia and folk side of Quicksilver Daydream makes plenty of appearances well, especially in the slow burner “Ferryman.” The song’s ambiance is hazy, almost as if the world could be warping in front of you. “Brother Mountain” ends the release with a quick pulse of urgent rhythm pieces and a steady vocal delivery; a total sing along. The EP is out on February 9th.

“A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame has been a long time in the making. Joey Deady, Brett Banks, Cole Emoff and I wrote these songs, what seems like ages ago – performing them in various mutations around the country with our old band, Wild Leaves. Sometimes the best thing to do with a song you don’t fully understand is set it aside for a while. In this case, distance offered a clearer perspective and a way to capture them in the manner we envisioned.

A Thousand Shadows, A Single Flame is a phantasmagoria of mythological characters and symbolic landscapes. Each song is an allegory of the existential and philosophical search for The Truth.

The EP is self-produced. Inspired by a conversation with one of our favorite producers, Thom Monahan, we decided to capture the most epic sound we could summon from the limited resources we had. We set up a makeshift studio in our Bushwick practice space and recorded the songs live to tape in two days. Mixing and overdubs took place over the following months, split between Petaluma, CA and Brooklyn, NY. During that period, Glenn Forsythe joined us on keys, adding the final touches. The tracks were then mastered by TW Walsh (Foxygen, Richard Swift). ” – Quicksilver Daydream - New Noise Magazine

Could this debut album by artist Adam Lytle be the best new release of the year? Listen to it a few times, and you might decide that it is.

Quicksilver Daydream is not so much a group as it is a state of mind. And that mind is the striking singular vision of one Adam Lytle.

Lytle hails originally from Ohio, but he did what many have done before him: leave his Midwestern home to take a stab at making it in music in the big city. Lytle headed for Manhattan and spent considerable time alone with his music and his thoughts. What emerged was a distinctive sound of genuine depth.

Lytle’s just-released debut album, Echoing Halls, is a tour-de-force psychedelic outing. It drips with brooding Gothic ambience, but it’s tinged with glimpses of sunshine. On a first listen, I found it hard to believe that an album this well-conceived and executed was a debut.

What is surprising isn’t so much that Lytle has made an album that is an homage to the 60s. No, you’re stunned that he has the musical talent to create poetic lyrics, musical textures and songs which grab your attention not by screaming but by whispering.

Some influences are obvious, but Lytle’s sound is all his own. There is the thoughtful songwriting style of the late Arthur Lee and his band, cult sensation Love. Also apparent are touches of the cryptic and clever wordplay we associate with Robyn Hitchcock. And, of course, there are echoes of Pink Floyd. Think of the early Pink Floyd led by Syd Barret. That band first launched under the musical direction of Joe Boyd, who also brought Nick Drake and Sandy Denny to a larger audience. That psychedelic folk connection is a key to understanding just how special Lytle’s music is in 2017.

Lytle receives ample production support here from TW Walsh who has worked with Foxygen, among others. As this album gets heard by many people, Walsh’s phone will also be ringing.

It might be too early to pick the best debut album of the year. But it’s no pipedream to say Adam Lytle has built a bridge to a bright musical future with this exquisite album.
- Steve Matteo - Scenes Media

The upcoming debut release from Quicksilver Daydream, Echoing Halls, is an aqueous mixture of reverberating vocals set to psychedelic folk melodies. The album, mastered by TW Walsh (Damien Jurado, Foxygen) is due out on June 16. The single “Echoing Halls” is a song that is meant to have some bite. It was written after an eye-opening and long night spent in a New York jail. Hallways stained in the yellow of flickering neon lights can be felt through the humbling desperation of the experience. Heavy reverb couples with the swirl and swell of harmonies that pay homage to the dancing melodies of the 60s. The rattle of chains can even be heard buried within the ambient melodies. Like a candle slowly burning “Echoing Halls” is both a whisper and a flame in the dark. - Paste Magazine

This would be easier to write if everyone had lived my life, for music was a large part of it. I grew up in the Fifties and Sixties and have since seen the ups and downs of musical trends most of you cannot imagine because while the oldest amongst us loved music, theirs was filtered through jukeboxes and radio stations and a few friends who had the desire to hear more and share. So while everyone shared the Beatles experience (we could not get away from it, in fact), the overall effect missed on a massive scale. We remember the hits but few remember the scene except as described above. Most never experienced the listening parties or the hanging out at record stores or the afternoons and nights of the lesser and unknowns played through headphones, the world inside all that mattered. That is what music was to the few and, like scientists immersed in science, we learned. We learned music and its many different paths but mostly we learned how to listen.

And I have been listening to Quicksilver Daydream's Echoing Halls for some time now. What started out as a simple folk/psych album has turned into a full blown experience. Each listen has peeled back a layer and the sounds, as many as there are, are beginning to make sense. Allow me to list what I have heard--- early Jefferson Airplane, The Soundcarriers, The Kingston Trio as heard through the experience of a monk's abbey, Anthony Newley, music fit for Broadway, a sixties junior high rock band, theme music for cinema, Sage Run, John Stewart, and Godley & Creme. And I'm not done yet.

Confusing? I should hope so. Those references came out of ten+ listens and in sometimes short bursts, the sound coming together sometimes for a measure, sometimes for a chorus, but there nonetheless. Don't confuse what I heard for influences. Chances are that The Daydream, who is actually none other than Adam Lytle, has heard only a few of the artists and did not set out to insert something akin to a theme for a hobbit-like or spaghetti western movie. These things just happen. Sometimes organically, and I am assuming that that is the case here, Lytle entering the studio with nothing more than an idea of the sound he wanted on some of the songs, the others solid in his head and creative heart.

In the end, what it all boils down to is psyche, the sound dense and lo-fi, thanks to extreme use of organ, mellotron, reverb and echo, and the sometimes monk-like choruses. Expect nothing flashy. The sound is the key and it is a good sound for those who dream in quicksilver, the mind loose and free.

Bottom line: I like this. I like this a lot. There are surprises throughout and I am enjoying every single one of them. There are caveats here though. Don't expect The Moody Blues or Pink Floyd. Expect the music to change on each track and even within certain tracks. Listen with an open mind, no expectations. Follow those guidelines and you might find Quicksilver Daydream much to your liking.

You can stream the album here. And don't be a needle-dropper (a person who listens to five seconds of a few songs before throwing an album on the trash heap). Give it a chance. Give yourself a chance. This could be one of those albums you might never have heard but for your adventurousness. One of those which shows you that music is only as dead as the person who listens. - Indie Musicology

It was a walk through our nation's most creative musical period. Lytle's voice, his lyrics and the music all tap into the rich musical past of the 1960s.

A barefoot Adam Lytle, the visionary songwriter/singer behind Quicksilver Daydream, welcomed SCENES and viewing fans into his home in Brooklyn, NY. The event was a recent psychedelic jam via SCENES Live Sessions on Friday, June 30. And it was a rare treat — a walk through our nation’s most creative musical period. Lytle’s voice, his lyrics and the music all tap into the rich musical past of the 1960s. But Lytle’s creations feel as fresh as the present moment.

He sang four songs, two from his debut album, Echoing Halls. The first was “See All.” The second was the EP’s title song. Steve Matteo reporting for SCENES on June 29 said of this debut album:

“Lytle’s just-released debut album, Echoing Halls, is a tour-de-force psychedelic outing. It drips with brooding Gothic ambience, but it’s tinged with glimpses of sunshine. On a first listen, I found it hard to believe that an album this well-conceived and executed was a debut.

“What is surprising isn’t so much that Lytle has made an album that is an homage to the 60s. No, you’re stunned that he has the musical talent to create poetic lyrics, musical textures and songs which grab your attention not by screaming but by whispering.”

Next, Lytle transported us back to 1969 with an amazing cover of “Sail Away” the classic by Pearls Before Swine. It’s difficult to compare the two versions. But I enjoyed the Quicksilver Daydream version better than the original. Then again I’m a fan of covers. Use Youtube to compare the two renditions for yourself.

The last song was a complete surprise. It has never been recorded. So Lytle treated SCENES viewers to a brand new song. It’s called “Morning Comes Too Soon.” The first line of the song gives you a flavor of the intensity of Lytle’s lyrics: “I’d give up my eyes to see you dance for me once more.”

Lytle is all about the music. Perhaps Matteo was right when he described Quicksilver Dream as “a state of mind — the striking singular vision of one Adam Lytle.”
- Robin Russell - Scenes Media

Brooklyn musician Adam Lytle, the man behind psych-folk outfit Quicksilver Daydream, creates sprawling, infectious landscapes that roll and rumble in ethereal and rustic waves. Known for his work with Wild Leaves, he spins a web of folk grace and psych theatricality, a spinning whirlwind of gothic intentions and languid melodies. With the forthcoming release of his debut record, "Echoing Halls," under this moniker, Lytle looks to break apart his myriad influences into a manageable chunk of noise and inspiration. But he's not simply segmenting these sounds because he can—there's a pattern to his work that keeps you constantly off guard.

On his new single, the title track from his forthcoming record, Lytle casts a shivering bass line over an airy percussive swagger while exploring a melody that you can hear from miles away. Channeling the softer side of bands like Comus and The Incredible String Band, he ruminates over a swell of strings and keys that conjure the spirit of the late '60s and sets you down in the middle without anything in the way of instruction. But it's this directionless approach that allows the song to mold itself to its listeners' experiences, resulting in a song that feels drawn from our own personal history and well-guarded memories. - Noog.com

It’s always good to find something new come across the Internet, especially when the vibes are something quite familiar, such as this track from Quicksilver Daydream. It’s the project of Adam Lytle who spends time in Wild Leaves, but this adventure seems to have a more nostalgic leaning. It definitely harkens back to the tradition of psychedelia, back when it was just moving into the mainstream. Still, I think my favorite part comes when Lytle takes on the chorus; there’s a pop sensibility that supersedes any musical nods. Look for Echoing Halls to hit on June 16th. - Austin Town Hall

Quicksilver Daydream is the gothic folk alias of singer-songwriter Adam Lytle. Already known for his work with Wild Leaves, his new project presents a pure distillation of his DIY ethic and his message of standing up for who you are and what you believe in.

The result is Echoing Halls, ten songs of longing draped in the murky arrangements of Mellotron strings, fuzz guitars and layered vocals. - The Mad Mackerel

Singer songwriter Adam Lytle has a gothic folk alias, and that alias is Quicksilver Daydream. Brooklyn-based by way of Ohio, he has been working on his music for a long time, and with two previously released EP’s as a part of another group, Wild Leaves. But with Wild Leaves on a hiatus, he decided to pursue another extension of himself. Quicksilver Daydream has just released a brand new album, and we have the exclusive stream.

The album is called Echoing Halls, and it’s made up of 10 awesome tracks. It tells the tale of overcoming your limits and self-reliance, which is a lesson that is definitely important for everyone.

Here’s what Quicksilver Daydream had to say about the album:

"I had just come out of a period of heavy obsession with what I now call ‘Sensual Psychedelic Music.’ Artists like Tim Buckley, Scott Walker (First 4 solo albums) and Gandalf. Songs that revel in a heightened state of sensory awareness, both emotional and physical. The romanticism of the lyrics paired with the baroque arrangement sounds like the work of a sorcerer casting his loving spell. I was interested in exploring this concept, but needed to find an access point that was uniquely mine."

-Emily Chu - Impose Magazine

Adam Lytle is a rural Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumenlaist, and the mastermind behind the psych folk/psych rock recording project Quicksilver Daydream. And as Lytle explains the dramatic clash of locations helped contribute to the album and his identity as a musician. “From the onset, I was forced to embrace the lack of isolation in the recordings,” Lytle says in press notes. “From bands playing next door while we recorded drums, to the renovations in the apartment next to mine, there always seemed to be somebody making noise at inopportune times. I had no choice but to proceed, placing mics in ways to minimize the excess noise. I kept reminding myself of Jeff Tweedy who said there’s a drill press on all of his records made at the Wilco Loft, because there is a working machine shop one floor above. In the end, it gives life to the recording. It lets you know they weren’t made in a void.”

The album’s latest single, album title track “Echoing Halls” was reportedly inspired by a personal and eye-opening experience Lytle had while spending a night in a New York City jail — and the song manages to describe the experience in harrowing terms; in fact, you can feel the desperation of the song’s narrator, who quickly recognizes that his own stupidity got him into a mess, he can’t get out of. Instead, he’s left with his own thoughts, the sounds of the corrections officers footfalls echoing throughout the halls while sonically the song pairs heavily reverb-fed guitar chords with fluttering 60s psych rock/bubblegum pop melodies.
- William Ruben Helms - The Joy of Violent Movement