Greg Davis | Mort Aux Vaches
Staalplaat | CD
Greg Davis's instalment in the collaborative Staalplaat/VPRO 'Mort Aux Vaches' series establishes itself slowly. Hesitant chords buried in static. By the fourth track 'Cumulus', however, a tremulous rhythm emerges, tentative and tender, until slowly it implodes.
It's at these moments - the interface between gentle melody and crisp noise - that this delicate release comes alive. Punctuated throughout by a series of short field-recording-infused, live improvised intervals - 'Field1', 'Field2', 'Field3'... - Davis develops a palette of sounds which combine the everyday and commonplace with moments coaxed from software.
Emerging from the ever-present static 'Good Morning Amanda' rests an assertive guitar line above a slowly melting cascade of dissonance. 'At My Window' revisits the studio refinement of Brian Wilson's unique sound, burying it in the sheen of static, a murky gloss that fits it perfectly.
Another gift to treasure in the 'Mort Aux Vaches' series.
[CM]
