GROUPER Almagià, Ravenna 17th March 2012 – Transmissions V Festival
Liz Harris (Grouper) buried in a sleepy haze.
This show was billed as a 6pm matinee performance by ‘Grouper Violet Replacement’ incorporating the title of Liz Harris’ new self released album as if this were her new extended stage name.
Violet Replacement has the longest tracks she has recorded to date – two tracks with a total playing time of 88 minutes 36 seconds. The hard copy versions are released on two separate CDRs (I was disappointed that copies were not sale at the venue so have to be content with my MP3 downloads).
Cushions were provided at the venue to ensure that the audience absorbed the music either seated or lying. With the subdued lighting, the atmosphere was more like a meditation session than a rock show.
Liz Harris has an appropriately Zen-like presence, calmly and impassively operating her stage tools (no visible laptop) in what I assume is a straight playback of the longer of the new album tracks called Sleep. The only visuals are some muted white dots that swirl around like oversized fireflies.
A few of the 50 or so listeners took the title literally as an invitation for a late afternoon nap and the soporific quality is, I imagine, deliberate.
This is the kind of pure, soothing and sedative ambient music that has the same cleansing and restorative effect as you experience after a good night’s slumber.
“Architecture is a lattice of literary and academic references” says Gaby Graves .
When she visited Prague – where she spent a lot of time at the Jewish cemetery – she felt the strong presence of Kafka’s ghost and this resulted in The Twin, a track written in the bathtub at her hotel room. The lyrics have suitably bohemian references: “Surrounded by garnet relics and grand facades / Brocade lanterns and Dvorak /Drawling a slow-cobbled filigree through each open door”.
If you’re mourning the demise of Pocahuanted, as I was in yesterday’s post, a pretty good alternative lies in Zola Jesus from Madison, Wisconsin.
