049 — Sarah Davachi & 9 Year Anniversary Show

Las Cruxes Radio invites Sarah Davachi who contributes our first mix of 2019 and parallels as our program's 9th Anniversary Show.

Davachi is a Canadian sound artist, composer of electronic and electroacoustic music and pianist. The instrumentation she employs is varied, including analog synthesizers, piano, electric organ, pipe and reed organ, voice, tape-replay samplers, orchestral strings, and woodwinds, with mutual idioms often layered in textural and timbral counterpoint.
She holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Calgary, and a master's degree in electronic music and recording media from Mills College in Oakland, California where she studied with Maggi Payne, James Fei, and David Bernstein.
She is currently a doctoral student in musicology at UCLA and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Read along for an in-depth interview, followed by a mix of English prog paired with early music studies performed by David Munrow.

You are rooted in Canada but have relocated to Los Angeles, correct? What was the attraction to moving and how has this transition been for you?
Yes, I was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, which is a major prairie city nestled into the foothills of the Rockies. It was a nice place to grow up, easy living that was good for the soul at the time. I've moved around a lot in the past 10 or so years: for most of my twenties I lived in Vancouver but I also spent a few years in the Bay Area when I was going to grad school at Mills College and also a year more recently in Montréal. Los Angeles has always seemed like an attractive city to me for a lot of different reasons – I kind of like how large and spacious it is and how weird and dated it is. The impetus for moving was that I decided to do my PhD in musicology, which I'm currently doing at UCLA...but to be honest I wasn't prepared to move anywhere other than Los Angeles. It feels like a good place to be a musician right now, there's a lot going on and it's still relatively affordable for a large American city, and it also provides the space and quietude that I need to feel sane and productive. It's not necessarily been an easy transition – I'm finding that it's a really hard city to figure out and feel comfortable in because it's so large, and I have a lot of mixed feelings about living in America right now. But it's also been very rewarding in a lot of ways, and it feels like an amazing place to grow into. I like the landscape and I have some good people around me. Overall I am really liking being there, I just wish it was a bit colder and more gloomy from time to time.

What sparked your relationship with music?
I grew up playing classical piano, from age six until I was about 20, through the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada. You do exams and competitions and studies in theory and counterpoint and all of that kind of thing. I remember having pretty strong reactions early on to playing Baroque music; it was really soothing just being able to zone out like that. I mostly hated performing during that time because of the pressure, and I remember later on, probably around 18 or 19, I started feeling a stronger pull to composition. So I quit playing and decided to take some classes in composition and theory at my university, where I was studying philosophy. I took one class in electroacoustic composition that I really enjoyed – that way of making music and orchestrating different textures made a lot of sense to me. Around the same time, when I was 20, I got a job at a musical instrument museum (mostly acoustic and electronic keyboards) in Calgary, where I worked as a tour guide and later, once I left Calgary, as an archivist and content writer for their collections department. I did that job for about 10 years, and I guess I'd say that that was probably the biggest influence on my relationship with music. I had all this drive to create music but I was rejecting the piano so much then, so when I started working at the museum it was like a gift...I was surrounded by this plethora of incredible instruments that I had free access to and was being paid to learn about. So in my downtime at work I would get to know the instruments really well, and I became particularly enamoured with organs and synthesizers because they were like the antidote to the limitations of the piano. I remember so many winter nights when I would turn all the lights off in the building and just play a series of long, held tones on this enormous reed organ for hours. Sitting there in this wide open space and being completely enveloped by flickering overtones was such a unique sonic experience that I took to very strongly. I got to interact with a lot of historic instruments also, which instilled in me a deep respect for history and craftsmanship that I still value today in my own instrument collecting. When I got to Mills College a few years later, I was exposed to all of this crazy experimental music that I had never come across before and a wildly imaginative musical community that I was in awe of and I think everything kind of fell into place then, taking me to where I am now.

Your latest album and second release this year, Gave in Rest has been refreshing for me to sit with, simply because it persuades me to slow down; something I'm actively working towards. It guides me within this almost monastic sonic environment, contrast to so much incessant information and stimulation around us. Was there a running theme for you that helped flesh out the album?
Yes, that was basically what was going through my mind the entire time I was working on the album. That record came out of such an intense period of emotional and lifestyle transition, in the months before I moved to Los Angeles, that I think the stillness you might hear on it really just emerged out of a deep necessity for calm. I did most of the tracking for the record during the spring and summer of 2017 in Montréal, but in between those sessions I was basically on constant tour in Europe, for like 3 months or so. I couldn't legally move to the United States yet so I was in this bizarre state of flux, living out of a suitcase and just kind of drifting around. It was great in a lot of obvious ways but emotionally and physically rather destructive, which anyone who tours a lot can probably relate to. I'm a homebody and a creature of habit, too, so I found that when I was traveling and thinking about how I was going to mix the record, I was actively seeking these quiet or almost ritualistic moments to help me retain some kind of sense of self in an unfamiliar zone. I spent a lot of time in churches and cathedrals and places like that, too – I generally always like visiting those types of spaces in Europe because of the architecture but at this time it was another sort of necessity, though in a completely secular way. Just having the space and quiet and calm and aesthetic stimulation was really affirming. So in the fall when I arrived in Los Angeles and started mixing the record and trying to adjust to a "normal" lifestyle again, I spent a lot of time just sitting with the music, not really rushing anything, and I think that sense of space and time kind of seeps in on the record.

How has the creative process of this release differed or evolved from your previous six titles?
This was definitely the record that I put the most time into in terms of planning and editing and mixing and that sort of thing. I think the previous records were born either of experimentation that kind of morphed into more tightly wound compositions or they were like a kind of massive creative expulsion. A lot of my work is the latter, actually, meaning that I often get a really strong set of ideas about something and a lot of motivation and I just kind of sit down and everything pours out at once. Of course, there is always a long period of editing and refining and fine-tuning that material afterward, but the initial parts tend to happen like that. Let Night Come On Bells End The Day, the previous record on Recital, was like that...it all came out so quickly and in a huge volume that was almost overwhelming. Gave in Rest just took a lot of time and a lot of working on things and starting things and binning them and then starting over and manipulating things over and over and over. It was definitely a less straight forward process than other records. But to me it feels like some of the most considered compositions I've done as a result. Most of my records are also reflective of my personality – I am a night owl, and I really thrive when I work on things at late hours, including music. Gave in Rest was put together sort of at odd hours for me – in the morning, especially – which is probably why all of the track titles reference a preoccupation with times of day.

Besides yourself, who knows you best?
That's hard to answer, actually. I have a lot of close friends in different cities who know me well in different ways – one of the silver-lined results of moving around at important junctures of your life, I suppose. I'm close with my family also, and they know me well.

Walk us through a day in your life...
It kind of depends – I have a lot of different types of days because of the irregularity of my schedule – so it's not always the same trajectory. Ideally, I like to be at home. I don't like having to be places at particular times, which makes me sound like a jerk maybe, but I'm really not functional in the morning so I like to move slowly, maybe do laundry or return emails from bed and do basic stuff like that until I'm feeling motivated. From mid morning until early evening I like to tuck in and work on stuff from home, and I like having time to myself, alone, to do that. The times that I have to be at school are pretty relaxed but my commute is terrible, so that eats up a lot of time on those days. If I have time during the day I might go out for lunch or take a walk or something. In the evening I am admittedly pretty lazy. I actually don't go out much, though I do like going out for dinner and there are a lot of cool spots in LA. Usually I drop out and watch a movie or Jeopardy or something and maybe fall asleep on my couch. I pretty frequently will wake up in the middle of the night and be awake and actually kind of productive for a few hours until I fall asleep again as the sun is rising. I once read somewhere that a lot of famous inventor types like Edison or whomever slept in stop-start patterns, for a few hours at a time as needed rather than in the long blocks we are accustomed to. I figure that if I'm awake and my brain is active I may as well take advantage of it. I actually get a lot of things done in the middle of the night. I also like to see the light and the calm outside just before dawn. If I'm on tour it's complete chaos as my world is at the liberty of flights and soundchecks and stuff like that. I always try to fit in something touristy wherever I am though, even if I've visited before, or take a walk to figure the place out.

A record you never tire of?
I'm a huge Todd Rundgren fan, and I could probably listen to Something/Anything? every day and grow neither sick nor tired of its beauty and brilliance. Trespass by Genesis also falls into that category: it is, as everyone knows, their best record and features my favourite album art of all time. There are a couple others, maybe: Alastair Galbraith's Cry, Grateful Dead's American Beauty, John Frusciante's To Record Only Water For Ten Days, Ash Ra Tempel's Starring Rosi, Phil Manzanera'sDiamond Head, Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother, Roy Harper's Stormcock. Pretty classic, all of those.

What are you listening to?
I've just finished a seminar on paleography, so my head has been full of late medieval and early Renaissance polyphony the past few months. DuFay, Machaut, Vitry, Byrd, Josquin, stuff like that. I've also been really into Vivaldi lately, never really cared for him much until quite recently – the Nisi Dominus recording on Decca with countertenor Andreas Scholl is gorgeous. I've been revisiting this library record by Georg Deuter, Soundtrack, recently as well as the whole Franco Battiato discography and Tim Buckley's Blue Afternoon. The Deuter record is a bit hit or miss, but the good stuff on it is really lovely. I'm a big admirer of Ennio Morricone so I've been going through some of the soundtracks of Nino Rota and Riz Ortolani lately; definitely some good things in there, especially in the latter, the Cannibal Holocaust OST is unreal. Other than that, I actually haven't been listening to a lot of new music lately since I've been mixing my own music; I tend not to do that so as to keep my head straight. Over the summer and into the fall I went through a major Black Sabbath phase; the production on those records is formidable. Around this dreary time of year I actually like to listen to Si On Avait Besoin d'une Cinquième Saison, which is this incredible record from 1975 by the French-Canadian prog band, Harmonium. It's one of my favourite records of all time and of course it's good for all seasons.

What are you reading?
There are a lot of books that I own and want to read but haven't had the time. One that I recently bought and can't wait to read is The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg, which is this bizarre micro-history about an Italian peasant in the sixteenth century who held some far out cosmological theories that came to light during the Roman Inquisition, partly about worms transforming into angels. I buy books often, a lot of non-fiction about different subjects in science and history and architecture and things like that, sometimes some poetry or fiction. I recently picked up a bunch of great books from one of my favourite shops, The Paper Hound in Vancouver: a Penguin dictionary of saints, Tales of the Alhambra by Irving, Four Centuries of Fine Printing by Morison. I am actually reading basically all of the time but it's all kind of weird musicological and philosophical shit for school: a lot of Paul Ricoeur over the past few months, especially The Rule of Metaphor, I quite admire his ideas because of their fundamental simplicity; an excellent book that was edited by my advisor, Robert Fink, called The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music, as well as another reader called The Art of Record Production, edited by Simon Frith; and, a classic called The Modern Invention of Medieval Music by Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, who is a medieval musicologist in the UK, I think. One of the most interesting books I've read recently was Svetlana Boym's The Future of Nostalgia.

Last movie you watched?
I watch movies all the time, including a lot of mainstream garbage. Probably the most recent thing that I watched was actually Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which is my favourite of that series. To save face, I will mention that my favourite movie is Barry Lyndon.

What inspires you?
I suppose there are a lot of different things, in different ways. One thing that never fails is, of course, hearing music either live or on record that I connect strongly with. I think sometimes there's a bit of a defeated feeling that tries to prevail, where I worry that I'm no good or that I'm not doing enough or being honest or whatever, but that quickly turns into motivation to just work on stuff and keep exploring. That seems like it would be a normal reaction for a lot of people. The beauty of music – or any other type of art – when it is experience just resonates so strongly and often times that's enough. Those who know me well know that I listen to a lot of different types of music, all of which I find inspiring in some manner. Also, it may not seem like it, but there are actually a lot of sort of prosaic or day-to-day experiences that elevate themselves into some kind of poetic for me, and those are often deeply embedded in my music. I don't know, I think there are muses hiding everywhere if you're willing to look.

Favorite memory of 2018?
If I'm being completely honest, 2018 was a bit of a rough year. I don't believe in numerology and shit like that but, generally speaking, even-numbered years are noticeably worse than odd-numbered ones for me. There were probably more lows than highs but I do have a few good memories that stand out. In the summer I remember visiting my parents in Calgary and watching a crazy rainstorm in the middle of the night with their cat, Tito, who I adore, standing silently next to me. They live kind of isolated in the middle of a provincial park, so it's pretty dark and quiet, and the entire house was black except for the occasional flash of lightning that lit everything. It was really peaceful. I took a lot of late night walks in my neighbourhood in Los Angeles in July also, because that's the only time that it's cool enough to be outside. That was also really nice, just listening to music and wandering around aimlessly, getting to know the streets. Plants and flowers look different at night, you know? In September I had a really nice day off in Amsterdam while on another short tour – I spent half the day playing a bunch of pipe organs at Orgelpark, one of my favourite institutions on the continent, and the other half walking through the Rijksmuseum, which is my favourite national museum. I also got to visit Kyoto recently, which was amazing. I had one day off and spent it at this beautiful temple. I also played a show the night before at a different temple, which was really memorable. Being in Japan is such a transformative experience, I think it's the way every place should aspire to be. My favourite musical memory of 2018 was playing a Red Bull show in Montréal at Église du Gesù, which is my favourite church in the city. It might sound stupid but it was special because there was a lot of promotion for it, so I remember the night before taking the train to a 24-hour Jean Coutu downtown and in the metro station there were these giant digital billboards with my name and the names of the other performers (Kara-lis Coverdale and Alex Zhang Hungtai) on it, which I have to admit was pretty cool, especially in a city where you once lived. The piece I did for that show was also an amazing experience – it was for pipe organ, cello, voice, and French horn. The French horn was placed in a loft above the audience and below the organ loft, and it sounded incredible with the organ, it was just amazing to be playing and hearing everything happening at the same time acoustically. Red Bull also completely transformed the space with lights and astroturf and plants and stuff, it was brilliant.

Any exciting projects or endeavors lined up for 2019?
Yes, many! As always, there will be touring. I'm planning out a new live setup and I'm excited to tour that around and see where it leads. I'll be on kind of a long tour in Europe in March, doing a lot of cool shows on that one including a two-day residency at Café OTO in London and a commission with the GRM in Paris. One night of the OTO residency I'll do a piece with members of the London Contemporary Orchestra and a choir, and the second night I'll do a collaboration with Áine O'Dwyer. In early May I am premiering an exciting commission for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow – that one is going to be amazing but I'm actually a bit nervous about it because I'm going to compose a new piece for an orchestra of about 30 players, which is much larger than any ensemble I've worked with before. It's just a very different way of thinking about sound distribution. I get to perform with them, though, and I think it will be recorded and all of that so that will be a really incredible opportunity. There will also be two records again – it's not a precedent that I'm planning to maintain in upcoming years necessarily, but for right now I'm really into the idea of taking advantage of feeling super creative and inspired by different projects. The first record is on Superior Viaduct, it's kind of experimental, basically two side-long pieces, all acoustic. We recorded it at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley just before they closed. I'm really into it but it's kind of different than my previous stuff. The first side, especially, which is a trio piece for organ, violin (performed by Eric Kenneth Malcolm Clark), and viola da gamba (performed by Laura Steenberge), is one of my favourite things that I've ever done. The second record will be with Room40 and it will be kind of a tribute record to the organ, or at least to my interaction with organs. There will be stuff for pipe organ, more intimate stuff for reed organ, and then some stuff for electric organ and tape loops, which is more in line with the kinds of things I've been playing live recently. I'm also going to start working on an exciting project for a friend and colleague in Michigan who plays the carillon. There will also be some cool pipe organ concerts throughout the year, which is always nice. I also did a collaborative album with Ariel Kalma, and I think that's set to come out this year, too.

Lastly, what can you tell us about this mix you’ve made us?
This mix is kind of a weird one, basically it serves the tastes of two different types of listeners, but not intentionally. It's all stuff that I love and it's kind of the two zones that I've been lost in lately. All of the performers are British, so a good setting for some darker winter days. Half of the tracks are from some of my favourite prog and related bands from the late 1960s and early 1970s, like Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen (an exception, he was Australian), Anthony Phillips, Genesis, King Crimson, and Mike Oldfield. I really love that Mike Oldfield track so much, everything he touches is pure gold. And this era of music is super inspiring to me, the production and songwriting and orchestration is so incredible. Then the other half of the tracks, which are interspersed throughout as short little interludes, are all performances of medieval and Renaissance repertoire by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. I really admire David Munrow – he was an eminent scholar and performer within the early music revival of the 1960s and 1970s in the UK and unfortunately he passed away far too young. He made all of these educational books and videos about instrumentation from this era, which all feel so wonderfully idyllic and innocent.

*For more information please visit Sarah Davachi on — Instagram | Website

Tracklist:
01. Kevin Ayers - Song for Insane Times
02. Colin Muset - Chansonnette
03. Robert Wyatt - Maryan
04. Luis de Milan - Fantasia XI
05. Genesis - Harlequin
06. Guillaume le Heurteur - Chanson (Hellas! Amour)
07. King Crimson - Lady of the Dancing Water
08. Anon. - Duet (Le Rossignol)
09. Daevid Allen - Poet for Sale
10. Thomas Ford & William Byrd - Viol
11. Mike Oldfield - Peace Demo A
12. Pedro de Soto - Entrada Réal
13. Forest - The Midnight Hanging of a Runaway Surf
14. John Dowland - Orlando Sleepeth
15. Gong - Cos You Got Green Hair
16. Thomas Mace - Theorbo, A Fancy, Praelude
17. Anthony Phillips - Which Way the Wind Blows
18. Giovanni Salvatore - Toccata from the Naples MS
19. Kevin Ayers - Eleanor's Cake (Which Ate Her)

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