Announcing the Release of Eric Layer’s First Solo Album, “Fall” A fresh voice emerges in L.A.’s Echo Park music scene Eric Layer, current multi-instrumentalist for L.A. art rockers Hecuba and Mountain Party, and former member of NY-based indie rock band Setting Sun and Seattle/LA performance art troupe Piece of Meat Theatre, has just self-released his first solo record, entitled Fall. The music on Fall is rooted in Acid Folk, but stretches beyond the acoustic with analog effects, programmed beats, and ambient textures. “Lovely Day” starts with a haunting melody, slide guitar and whistling, reminiscent of a Morricone theme, while title song “The Fall” features Simon and Garfunkel-esque harmonies in a psychedelic backdrop. The songs on Fall are the perfect soundtrack to introspective road trips or drug induced comas. In tone, they do recall the season in which the album’s named after. But he’s not afraid to build songs to a thunderous climax, as in “Lost Dog” which includes a squealing Radiohead-like lead guitar line, or the chilling “Yellow Moon”, which starts with bells and a finger-picked acoustic guitar, and builds to a noise rock freak-out a la Sonic Youth. Lyrically, he’s centered on themes of love, possession, addiction, apocalypse, and hope. On “The Fall”, he either longs for or fears for a time “When all of the kids can grow without shame/No walls of condition will stand in their way/When all of our cunning won’t matter at all / The worry and running / The fear of the fall”. The Fall could stand for falling in love, the fall of man, or even the season itself. Elsewhere, on “Wounds”, he condenses the eternal parent-child problem into two simple lines: “Mothers might give us the wounds they received / They don’t mean to do it, they can’t help it” Eric plays all the instruments on the album except for band mate Cheryl Caddick (Mountain Party) who adds percussion on a Karina & Yellow Moon, Dana Kline, who adds some seriously psychedelic flute, and former Natalie Merchant current Joseph Arthur guitarist/vocalist Jennifer Turner (Natalie Merchant, Joseph Arthur), who sings backups on the title track, “The Fall”. In addition to the usual guitar, bass, drums, there’s piano, recorder, all manner of percussion, keyboard, and harmonium. All in all, Fall is a modern rock record, artistic and accessible, part of the new L.A. sound emerging from Echo Park, where Eric lives and records. It combines influences of 60s psychedelia, 70s folk rock, 90s grunge and trip hop, creating a new sound all its own. “Fall” is available at CD BABY, iTunes, and Amoeba records. For more information, booking info and interview requests, email ericlayer@sbcglobal.net or call 213 448 5494