The Philadelphia-based pedal steel player discusses ‘Language at an Angle’, his debut under his own name, and what Susan Alcorn taught him about tradition, freedom, and the instrument she loved.
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Today we're putting The Tonearm's needle on guitarist and composer Sam Wenc.
Went is a Philadelphia-based artist who has spent nearly a decade building one of the more distinctive bodies of work in American experimental music, mostly under the name Post Moves.
Now he's released his first album under his own name. It's called Language At An Angle, and it came out on Lobby Art Editions in January. The record grew out of a year of live performances—from Philadelphia to Japan—and it captures Sam doing something specific with pedal steel guitar: striking it, bowing it, treating it as both a sound source and a physical object. The result sits somewhere between drone, jazz, and a kind of American folk music you can't quite place.
Sam's here to walk us through the record, his move to Philadelphia, and what it means to finally put his own name on the work.
(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Sam Wenc's Language At An Angle)
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00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:24 Why release music under his own name — and retiring Post Moves
00:04:10 The making of Language at an Angle
00:07:31 Extended techniques and the physical nature of the pedal steel
00:09:53 The pedal steel as a compositional tool
00:13:45 Susan Alcorn: influence, legacy, and what she taught him
00:20:16 Tradition, the avant-garde, and purity tests in music
00:22:40 Performance as invitation — making space for discomfort
00:24:06 The album title, meditation practice, and the instability of language
00:27:21 Collaborators and the live band
00:31:48 Mixing, mastering, and production as composition
00:37:48 Philadelphia: scene, community, and the value of cheaper rent
00:42:09 Touring and live performance plans for 2026
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Visit Sam Wenc at https://samwenc.com
and follow him on Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/sam_____wenc
Purchase Sam Wenc's album 'Language at an Angle' from Bandcamp → https://lobbyartrecs.bandcamp.com/album/language-at-an-angle
or Qobuz → https://www.qobuz.com/us-en/album/language-at-an-angle-sam-wenc/a1hx59d1v8mgb
and listen on your streaming platform of choice → https://tr.ee/XuTU0sDF67
For extensive show notes, links, and podcast information, go to https://podcast.thetonearm.com
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