Sarah Davachi – Two Sisters

Late Music

For somebody so young, Sarah Davachi is incredibly prolific and for someone working in such a rarefied atmosphere, she has so many ideas and theories.

Two Sisters, her latest double album, is an extraordinary collection of tonal pieces that take in strings, various pipe organs, trombones, voices, bells and electric organ and somehow manages to produce an inspiring and timeless journey that due to the long, slow unfolding of the tracks is very immersive.

The carillon of bells used here is the third largest in the world and removing them from a sacred environment allows them to clear the mind; a little repeating route that prepares for what is to come. The comfort of the resounding tones as they hang in the air, gently decaying, is like a head massage and prepares you well for the tenderness of the voices that follow.

The voices sit slightly at odds, lending just a touch of discord, generating different sensations, but both rising from the earth like spectral mists. When the first pipe organ is introduced, you really find yourself hanging on the notes, focusing on the slightest variation and stepping back when a further note arrives. They oscillate subtly in and out of your line of hearing, often surprising you as you slip deeper into one moment.

It is a warm sound that requires and demands your full concentration, and is fascinating because of the detail which you can find within the notes, detecting the intricacies of her modal worlds. Where strings are applied, they move so slowly and are as one, producing a further set of tones that sets them apart from the organ that came before an inexorable and irresistible swell that requires these long form pieces to fully appreciate the movement.

A solo piece for a different organ has a warmer touch as is slips from tone to tone, rising up and beckoning like an arm extended. There is something uplifting here in “Harmonies In Bronze”, which has a very different temperament when introduced in “Harmonies In Green”. You wouldn’t think that such variations could be experienced, but each piece holds its own counsel, offering something new to you but always within the confines of Sarah’s goals.

It is interesting to have another string piece, this time for quartet, follow an organ piece and feel the darkness that some of the note edges have here. The atmosphere changes again, but is wiped clean by a quartet of trombones and another change in pitch and timbre, the almost imperceptible use of slide, giving the impression of aircraft moving slowly across a vast expanse, the slowest of Doppler effects drawing your ear skyward.

There is something oddly melancholy about the final piece and that is a sensation that hasn’t occurred until now. Maybe it is the bass flutes that play counter to the pipe organ, but it is a low key and somewhat subdued send-off that is raised by a welcome, final flurry of bells.

The first time I played this album through, I didn’t fully connect with it; but on second play, its magic really started to seep in and it felt a little like diving into a warm ocean, welcoming and all enveloping. Two Sisters is a real triumph and as an LP comes a double gatefold with a lovely explanatory booklet.

-Mr Olivetti-