Late Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Sarah Davachi's latest record, The Head As Form'd In The Crier's Choir, is a septet of compositions, written between 2022 and 2024, that form a conceptual suite and album-length observation of the mental dances that we construct to understand acts of passage. Transient in both name and sound, this stunning, droning set of compositions will work as timely quellers for those currently in a migratory state of mind, literally and/or figuratively. Often basking in the impure associations evoked by pure harmony and tonality, all the pieces are slow-moving, suggesting a lowered existential frame rate. Drawing inspiration from the classical myth of Orpheus and Eurydice - in which Orpheus ventures into Hades while living, dodging the usual psychopompic rites applied to those who have actually died, in a wager with the gods to resurrect Eurydice, his love - Davachi's record is a worthy intertext, bringing stygian drones of egress - woodwinds and electronic stretchings most notably - to the theme.