Words by Justin Turford
Two days. Two days of total immersion from two leading lights of the improvisational music scene meeting and making, creating and connecting. Drums, samplers and keyboards. Nature, meditation, practice. The two days was in late 2019 and nearly to the day two years later, the 27 recognisable ‘pieces’ of music recorded have become the 6 tracks of their ‘Plants Heal’ LP which is released today on Dave De Rose Records, and it is a beautifully calming and impressionistic realisation of Dave and Dan’s dereliction of ego and mainstream expectations.
No rush, no race to the hook, to the selling point. This is music as watercolour, as shading, as focussed breathing. Moments of deep contemplation segue into head-nodding, eyes tight tension but the blood flows the same. Both Dave and Dan have an admirable and diverse background in extraordinary experimentation in the improvisational, jazz and electronic arenas but it is their restraint that shines here. Lead single ‘Willow’ is a slow-burning journey. The haunting astral synths and Dave’s stripped down drum kit propelling both inwards and into space. ‘Penstemon’ raises the tempo, the heart rate rises with a more electronic pulse but the otherworldly loop eats itself in time and carries you gently back down to the ground. ‘Gray-Leaved Sage’ is backroom Berghain. Robotic music played by human animals, there is a tautness to the playing that uncoils and runs. A cardio meditation if you will, you must earn it. ‘Hawthorn’ begins in the forest and ends underground. Field sounds, subsonic bass tones, warm organic bleeps popping like half-recalled thoughts washing away as you attempt to focus on them. Gorgeously understated. ‘Arts Of Living’ and ‘Plants heal’ bookend the album with contemplative aural exercises in breathing and release. Airy and uncluttered, we can imagine the duo in a candlelit space barely performing, dreaming the sounds into existence. Do plants heal? Of course they do. 8/10
ALBUM LAUNCH EVENT! Tuesday 16 Nov - as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival at Servant Jazz Quarters - https://efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/dave-de-rose-dan-nicholls-plants-heal-album-launch
BUY THE ALBUM HERE! https://davederosemusic.bandcamp.com/album/plants-heal