Options - 100 Different Spellings

My friend Brian Asbury recently released the first album, 100 Different Spellings, from his latest music project, which he calls Options.


I met Brian almost 4 and a half years ago when Patrick and I were visiting some relatives in Cincinnati, Ohio. My aunt basically set up a "play date" between us and Brian. He came over for maybe a couple of hours and we talked about music the whole time. Over the years since then, we've stayed in somewhat sporadic contact through social networking sites and e-mail correspondence.

Brian has previously played with various bands and released a few solo albums, but he wanted to try something different this time. He described Options to me as "a networking tool for myself and the musicians I've worked with on many occasions." My cousin Kelly Klein has been a frequent collaborator of his, and she was one of the collaborators on 100 Different Spellings. Her voice can be heard on several songs. Her sister Caitlyn Klein (also my cousin) created the beautiful album cover seen above as well as the digital booklet that comes with the album when you download it.

The music on 100 Different Spellings flows from track to track and is meant to be listened from front to back. A lot of the music comes off as a collage rather than songs, with Brian being the collage artist with his role as producer. Although there are separate tracks, moods, and musical ideas that could be referred to as songs, the project effectively blurs the lines between easily definable endings and beginnings, aside from the obvious beginning of the album and obvious ending of the album 33 minutes and 41 seconds later. This concept doesn't sit well with all listeners, challenging beliefs as to what constitutes as music. The album was described to me by one listener as "just noise" since there was no beginnings or endings.

I enjoy the album quite a bit, having listened to it three times already, and I hope I get to collaborate with Brian sometime, maybe on a future Options album.

For the time being, Brian is offering the album for free, but you can pay what you want for it. He has it on Bandcamp. You can download 100 Different Spellings by clicking on the beautiful artwork above, or you can listen on the Bandcamp music player below.