Slow moving in its sound but fast-paced in its emotional punch.

Hayden Pedigo’s I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away is a powerful collection of instrumental pieces. On this record, Pedigo leans into a more contemplative and cinematic form of production, cultivating an overall sound that feels like a farewell letter whispered across the deserted plains of vacant land, where emotion and memory stretch wide.

The album title, I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away, suggests distance and the parting that comes along with it. That bittersweet tone carries through every track. Hayden Pedigo’s guitar playing remains at the core with tracks like “All the Way Across” and “Houndstooth,” drifting by slowly with aching simplicity and no need for resolution. There’s a subtle melancholy to the track “Hermes.” Ambient sounds swell around the edges, which gives the track a dreamlike haze, like the sun setting over an empty field. It is light fading into long and quiet shadows across the ground.

There’s less emphasis on technical showmanship and more focus on space, tone and mood on this record. Each song feels like a snapshot or maybe even a hallucination. It is both fleeting and introspective. There’s a distinct visual quality to this record as well. Each track is like watching a landscape painting come to life. It’s music for empty rooms, long drives or solitary mornings.

The minimal arrangements of this record give it a timeless feel. It could just as easily exist fifty years ago as it does today. What makes I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away special is its embrace of the silence and letting the silence do just as much as the notes. By the end of the record, the result is a project that lingers long after it ends. The record doesn’t try to overwhelm or impress; instead, it trusts the emotional weight of each track.