American experimental guitarist, pianist and composer David Grubbs has a remarkably broad canon of work, much of it in collaborative form with various incredible performers from all corners of the globe. The list is long and includes such players as Will Oldham, Loren Connors, Edith Frost and Dirty Three, not to mention his work with Jim O’Rourke as Gastr del Sol. The latter band proved the inspiration for Whistle from Above, with David playing a ‘shit-ton of guitar’ during lockdown whilst simultaneously scouring the Gastr del Sol archive. Inspired by the magic of collaboration, David decided to centre a new solo recording around that idea, bringing in several choice players to enhance his inimitable brand of guitar and piano minimalism.
The resulting album is just shy of forty minutes in length and contains eight tracks that manage to bring us a terrifically broad range of music and styles, filling the run time with creativity without compromising the minimalist structure of the music. Single piano tune Hung in the Sky of the Mind is one of the more spacious songs, with David’s sparse piano joined by Welsh musician Rhodri Davies’ twinkling harp playing and some feather-light violin from Cleek Schrey. The song is patient and beautifully innocent until around five minutes or so in, when a brief, industrial-sounding shard of metallic music (acting as a hint to the pretty far out closing song Synchro Fade Pluck Stutter Slip) cleverly shifts the mood ever so slightly, bringing an edge and eeriness to the sound.
This darker, more sinister tone is apparent on The Snake on its Tail, a spiky, electric guitar-led piece accompanied by Andrea Belfi’s rumbling drums, set back from the guitar’s sound, giving them the character of an electric storm approaching. This feeling is further enhanced by an overlaid guitar part full of distortion and menace, with some swiped notes akin to Warren Ellis’ more frenetic violin playing.
The guitar also sings on Queen’s Side Eye (great title), which sees a pretty and quite offbeat piece of picking shift into a more intense strumming pattern before being joined by Nate Wooley’s trumpet. But perhaps best of all is the strange and compelling Poem Arrives Distorted, a spacious piece that sees David’s neatly repetitive picked electric guitar haunted by Nikos Veliotis’ mournful sweeps of cello.
David has proven over the years that he is an intensely creative musician who is hungry for experimentalism and collaboration, and Whistle from Above certainly distils this. An album built around the philosophy of minimalism, these eight tracks hit so many moods and emotions that it positively demands multiple listens. Whistle from Above is a bumper crop of excellent mercurial music from an eternally fascinating artist. Welcome back.
Whistle from Above (28th February 2025) Drag City (DC941 LP)
Bandcamp: https://davidgrubbs.bandcamp.com/album/whistle-from-above
Pre-Save: https://lnk.to/whistlefromabove
David Grubbs Performances – March 2025
USA
4th @ Sisters – Brooklyn, NY *
29th @ Big Ears Festival – Knoxville, TN
*Whistle from Above record release show
w/ Nate Wooley, Wendy Eisenberg, Cleek Schrey
UK
15th @ Radiophrenia Festival at Glad Café – Glasgow #
16th @ Glad Café – Glasgow •
17th @ Star and Shadow Cinema Newcastle upon Tyne ∞
18th @ NCI Centre Cambridge ∞
19th @ Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff ∞
21st @ Pan-Pan Birmingham ∞
24th@ Cafe OTO London #
# w/Brunhild Ferrari and Luke Fowler
• solo
∞ solo + w/ Secluded Bronte