Nick Jonah Davis – Placebound Spirits
Independent – 1 May 2020
Unusually for Nick Jonah Davis, this four-song twenty-minute digital release is predominantly performed on nylon strings provided by guitar, ukulele and a guitalele, tracked alongside various field recordings from where Nick lives. The addition of the nature effects alongside the spacious and quite gentle sound of the nylon is at the same time gentle and ethereal and for three-quarters of the run-time, the effect is hazy and mystical. However, for ‘The Hedge Hound’, which begins the set, he plays slide on his Weissenborn instrument, mixing eastern sounds with the thumb-heavy picking style of American Primitive guitar. Nick is one of the best slide players around and this rich piece is no slouch; I especially like the loud crow’s ‘caw’ halfway through, along with plenty of bird song and the deep ‘boom’ of an unknown percussion that gives this tune depth and drama. Also, listen out for the spooky distant flute sound that acts as an outro.
In comparison, ‘Candela’ is a light and pretty melodic tune played on the guitalele with a strange shimmering effect underneath it and the fragmented sound of a human voice towards the end, almost hidden in the haze. It is the swirling nature of this music that holds a lot of its power, but at the centre of the bird calls and other less easily identifiable sounds is spacious and, particularly on ‘Placebound Spirits’, loose and varying string playing. It makes for very calming music that is at points fascinating and almost unnerving. This could be too strong a word, but the shifting nature of the sometimes barely audible background sound is very unusual and gives these small pieces an altogether different and changeable mood, perhaps echoing the current climate that the album title references.
The whole thing is certainly a beautiful blend of simplicity and complexity. These four tunes will beguile and intrigue you and have you playing them at different levels of volume, while you pick out tiny strands of sound you may have missed before. Take ‘Young Twig’, which combines the hollow efforts of a woodpecker with a reversed piano sample that sounds like the ghost of a tune from the past. This is all happening beneath a lovely quickly picked ukulele line, joined by sparse glockenspiel in places, that itself shifts ever so slightly from innocent and clear into a slightly uneasy mood before coming back towards the end. If it all sounds too strange, then fear not, it is intricately and skilfully played and recorded and the result is warm and light and balanced. In fact, I have found myself going back to this splendid little EP time and again, becoming utterly mesmerised by its subtle charms, strange nuances and, vitally, the gorgeous music.
https://nickjonahdavis.bandcamp.com/album/placebound-spirits-ep
http://www.nickjonahdavis.com/