And now for something different. In this latest rendition of the Tom Dyer Saga we step away from his usual pop/rock meanderings and head deep into left field for something strange and beautiful. 1+1 = ? is an album of collaborations. Tom Dyer and mostly one other person, trying to make a sound that is interesting, pure, unfettered. The orchestrated opener, “Everything In The World Is Returning To A State Of Nature” started living in Dyer’s head in 2004 while riding the commuter train to Boston and looking at rust. A 2017 call to Jim of Seattle finally brought it to vibrant life. The clangorous train-wreck song “Death At Mounts Road” did not exist in any form until Tom and Amy Denio walked in the recording studio on a January 2018 Saturday morning. More than half of these songs do not have drums. Most are slow. Some songs were written prior to the collaboration, others like the psycho-matic “Alaska (Put It In Your Head)” with The OF’s John Carey are pure improvisation. Ornette Coleman’s “A Girl Named Rainbow” was purchased as sheet music in 1977 and was the final song recorded for the album, in 2019. Dyer: “I started this album almost ten years ago without knowing it. The songs on this album were all one-offs. Accidents. While this album was taking its slow course, I completed seven other albums. Along the way accidents kept progressing, songs that just didn’t fit elsewhere. Some became singles. Some just hid. It was only when Amy came to Olympia for a day and we recorded “Mounts Road” that I realized there was a thread between them. These one-off orphans were all collaborations with one other person, and I was the glue. Since then I recorded three more songs with various collaborators and one by accident. Now it is done.” This album stands alone as an artifact. These songs will not be performed in public. There will probably be a video or two, but don’t hold your breath. This is sufficient.