Dana Gavanski – When It Comes
Full Time Hobby – 29 April 2022
Dana Gavanski’s talent is curiously enigmatic and difficult to pin down. Her brand of pop music is quietly experimental yet brimful with melodic sweetness. Her vocal delivery is folky, smoky, sometimes jazz-tinged, while the songs swim on winningly wonky waves of synth. Her debut – 2020’s Yesterday Is Gone – was full of melancholic whimsy, like a subtler Cate Le Bon with a pinch of Paul McCartney. There were hints of Julia Holter and classic British folk-rock. The results were beautiful and deserved to be heard in intimate live settings. Unfortunately, the pandemic scuppered any plans for a proper tour. As a result, the album seems even more precious and inscrutable, a moth preserved in amber, something visible from all sides and yet still full of secrets.
For her follow-up, Gavanski – who is based in London but has Serbian and Canadian origins – has taken a slightly different approach, at least in the practical areas of songwriting and composition. The songs on When It Comes focus on her impressive voice; the music (pianos and synths) has a role that is more abstract, less literal, acting as a backdrop for the vocal melodies rather than a straight-up accompaniment. Opener I Kiss The Night acts almost as a bridge between Gavanski’s old and new faces, a piano-led lullaby reminiscent of Chelsea Girl-era Nico that leads into an impressionistic chorus, revelling in the possibilities – simple and complex – of the human voice.
Bend Away & Fall is a satisfying slice of baroque avant-pop. There is a possible comparison with Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier to be made, but Gavanski’s musical approach is more organic, more tender. She reaches into a deeper well, beyond knob-twiddling retro-futurism and towards a heritage that includes elements as seemingly disparate as Bach and the Beatles. But regardless of heritage, these are songs that have one foot firmly in the present. They are anchored by Gavanski’s voice and also by her lyrics. Letting Go meditates on grief and longing to a backdrop of soft, rounded keys. The words have the strange clarity of haiku.
Shuffling drums provide a wobbly kind of impetus to Under The Sky, a song that sees Gavanski veer close to the British brand of hauntological pop perfected by the likes of Broadcast and Pram, while The Day Unfolds makes use of some fruity electronics and a delightfully off-kilter sax solo from Dan Leavers (aka Danalogue from London jazz-rockers The Comet Is Coming). Indigo Highway subverts its own krautrock influences with a slippery drum beat, and Lisa is an intriguing narrative that unfolds over six minutes and provides further proof of Gavanski’s maturation as a lyricist.
After recording her first album, Gavanski’s career was threatened not only by the Covid outbreak but by a more pressing issue: the sporadic loss of her voice. Much of what she has produced over the last two years (including the excellent covers EP Wind Songs) could be seen as part of the healing process. If that is the case, When It Comes may be the endpoint in that process. What is certain is that her singing is more assured than ever: the interaction between her high notes and the stabs of synth on The Reaper are particularly thrilling. On the closing track Knowing To Trust, she acknowledges her insecurities, posing questions to herself (‘Am I howling too loud?’) that could be meant to address the problems she has had with her voice but could equally function as more general existential uncertainty. It is typical of an album where nothing is ever quite what it seems, where unorthodox compositions coax complexity out of deceptively simple songs. When It Comes is triumphant and multifaceted, the sound of an artist finding her voice in some style.
When It Comes, out April 29th. Pre-order: https://orcd.co/whenitcomes
Dana also has two upcoming in-stores when she will play as a three-piece on 29th April in Resident, Brighton (details) and on 30th April in Bristol (details). The album is available on vinyl (also as a Dinked Edition).