Ron Pastore Releases New Single "Robot Hands" From His Neo-Psych Album 'Turtle Rock'
'Turtle Rock,' the album, arrived with a story behind it as vivid and specific as anything in its grooves. Pastore, a software engineer by day and a compulsive music-maker by instinct, was hiking with his family in Virginia in the period following the release of 'Bokeh,' his previous record and what he considered at the time to be his finest work. He was feeling the familiar low that follows a long studio-infused high, five years into making albums without putting much effort into promotion beyond emails to friends and family. The hike, the weather, and the blood flow gave him a moment of clarity that landed as both permission and direction: he loved what he was doing, it was alright to want real fans, alright to promote, and alright for some people not to connect with it. By the time he reached the summit, he had spotted a metallic emblem in the ridge of a stone shelter that read Turtle Rock, and a new album had its name, its concept, and its energy. The following year brought t housands of new listeners, messages, and what Pastore describes as proof that people were hearing the same thing he did while making it.
The album's central conceit is a fictional riverside bar, a random weeknight in the glow of the eighties, lousy weather, strangers, and a strange band taking the stage. Turtle Rock is both the bar and the setlist, a spontaneous dance party that happened because someone showed up when they were not sure they should. Pastore has described loving the idea of all of those elements colliding in one room, and the music reflects that collision with real warmth and kinetic energy. The recording process is characteristically meticulous despite its improvisational heart: live drums from collaborator Guy of Gisborne, mixing and mastering by Mic Angelo at Mix Palace on Long Island, and Pastore himself handling composition, production, sax, piano, guitar, and synthesizers across the seven-track album.
What began as a productive escape in his home office, with a world of endless responsibility waiting on the other side of the studio door, turned into something far more sustained and necessary.
Pastore has been building this body of work with remarkable consistency since the pandemic years first gave him the space and the permission to make something purely for himself. What began as a productive escape in his home office, family life and deadlines and bills all waiting on the other side of the studio door, turned into something far more sustained and more necessary. His daughter even plays cello on "The Nautilus," a detail that says everything about how this music has become woven into the fabric of his life rather than separate from it. His process is both structured and instinctive: the first half of any given year devoted to raw idea generation, beats, piano sketches, melodies sung into his phone; then 80 to 100 ideas competing on index cards down to fifteen, to ten, to seven, until only the ones that demand to exist survive. His previous album 'Bokeh,' a seven-track record released in September 2024 and available on limited edition 180-gram vinyl via Bandcamp, drew comparisons to the layered minimalism of the finest contemporary experimental work and demonstrated a composer with both a distinctive sonic vocabulary and the patience to let it fully breathe.
For a composer who describes the mix as the final testing ground, half finishing the work and half celebrating what the ideas became, 'Turtle Rock' is a record that sounds like exactly that: a celebration, arriving fully formed from someone who has been quietly getting better at something he loves, one album at a time.
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