Vergers

Released (LP) November 2016 by Important Records Reissue on Late Music, LMRVII Composed, performed, recorded, and mixed by Sarah Davachi Mastered by James Plotkin Layout by Konrad Jandavs Special thanks to Richard Smith Sarah Davachi: EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer, violin, voice Recorded between August 2015 and February 2016 in Vancouver, Canada 'Vergers' is Davachi's third full-length release following 'Barons Court' (2015, Students of Decay) and 'Dominions' (2016, JAZ Records), and her second appearance with Important Records following 2014's 'August Harp' cassette on the Cassauna imprint. In this work, she meditates on a single electronic instrument, the EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer, while also weaving sparse acoustic elements – her own voice and violin – into a series of three long-form, muted gestures. Elements of distance and alienation are certainly at play in the textural quality of these compositions, a feeling that is further defined by track titles that reference the spirit world and an album title that calls to mind the solitary tasks of the church orderly. The record opens with the aptly titled, 'gentle so gentle', a side-long movement that harkens the glacial character of Davachi's previous efforts. 'ghosts and all' and 'in staying' suggest a more disjointed path, with the latter culminating in a subtly dissonant dirge that leaves little absolve between the organic, the artificial, and the impermanent.

Sarah Davachi's minimalist work belongs to a tradition of deep, shimmering drone music. Play her music in a quiet room on good speakers and you can practically see the air moving around your head.

The duty of a verger in the Anglican Church is essentially to lead the clergy through the service of mass, without really playing a conspicu...