The Infamous Stringdusters’ Chris Pandolfi Releases New Solo Album ‘Trance Banjo’

The Infamous Stringdusters banjoist Chris Pandolfi released his new solo album, Trance Banjo, under his Trad Plus moniker. The album is Pandolfi’s first Trad Plus album since 2015’s Interference.

Pandolfi wrote, produced, engineered and mixed Trance Banjo, which is made up of nine tracks. Pandolfi also provided most of the instrumentation, with fiddler Stuart Duncan contributing to two songs and drummer Nicholas Falk appearing on four tracks. Work on the record began several years ago, but The Infamous Stringdusters’ schedule prevented Pandolfi from completing it. When the COVID-19 pandemic cleared the band’s touring schedule, Pandolfi used the time last year to finish Trance Banjo

Pandolfi described making Trance Banjo, stating:

This is a concept record that grew out of some experimentation that was happening as I finished my last Trad Plus record, Interference, in 2015. I was searching for texture in the music, and I started creating my own vinyl samples from old classical records.

It was the perfect complement to all the clean, modern sounds of the virtual instruments I was using, and just sounded beautiful under the stuff I was writing on banjo. The writing progressed and the tracks just started growing from there, but it was a massive project, and it took being home during quarantine to really immerse myself in the project to where I could finish it. Some tracks have 20 or more voices, so it was a lot to write, play and piece together. But I wanted this big, unique sound, and I am always trying to re-contextualize the banjo. That’s what Trance Banjo is all about.

Stream Trance Banjo below: