#4176: With Sarah Davachi
Composer Sarah Davachi’s music inhabits a distinctive sound world containing both acoustic instruments and electronic processing. Originally from Calgary, Sarah is now based in Los Angeles, and came to the studio to talk us through her most recent record, Gave In Rest, inspired by actual cathedrals and church-like spaces of Europe.
Davachi studied at Mills College in Oakland and grew up as a classical pianist. One of her jobs was working at a musical instrument museum in Calgary, giving tours on weekend, most of the time – to nobody. But, she was able to sit and play a whole mess of those keyboard instruments, including a reed organ. On her latest record, Gave In Rest, she plays both piano and organ, but enlisted others – specifically making an effort not to do everything. Many of the other musicians on the record are from Montréal, including string players Jessica Moss and Thierry Amar, and vocalist Lisa McGee.
The title of Davachi’s record, Gave In Rest, doesn’t reference anything specific, but John Schaefer posits that the record has a feeling of sacred music from a tradition that we may not know. For the record, composed mainly on the piano, she took inspiration from the sonic environment and the ‘forced time out’ of old European churches. In the titles of the pieces, “Evensong,” “Matins” and “Third Hour,” she does reference church terms without meaning those exact specific times of day. There’s a lot of listening to change over time as the processed overtones are stacked in a very structured way.
Plus, hear music by La Monte Young’s masterpiece, invoked during John’s conversation with Sarah. Listen to a harmonic area of a five hour work, “The Well-Tuned Piano” – “The Magic Harmonic Rainforest Chord” for a retuned piano tuned in just intonation, a system which leaves the intervals in their natural state, allowing for overtones that build up and ring out. -Caryn Havlik
ARTIST: Camille Hesketh, vocalist
WORK: Sarah Davachi: For Voice [1:30]
RECORDING: All My Circles Run
SOURCE: Students of Decay
INFO: sarahdavachi.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sarah Davachi
WORK: Evensong [5:28]
RECORDING: Gave In Rest
SOURCE: Ba Da Bing Records
INFO: badabingrecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sarah Davachi
WORK: Matins [8:23]
RECORDING: Gave In Rest
SOURCE: Ba Da Bing Records
INFO: badabingrecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sarah Davachi
WORK: Gloaming[5:42]
RECORDING: Gave In Rest
SOURCE: Ba Da Bing Records
INFO: badabingrecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Sarah Davachi
WORK: Third Hour [7:24]
RECORDING: Gave In Rest
SOURCE: Ba Da Bing Records
INFO: badabingrecords.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: La Monte Young
WORK: The Magic Harmonic Rainforest Chord, excerpt [9:46]
RECORDING: The Well-Tuned Piano
SOURCE: Gramavision 5 CD-set, #18-8701
INFO: Out of print. Info at melafoundation.org
