Greg Davis’ Somnia exhibits enormous restraint, employing technology in an extremely subtle way to scintillating effect. Known best for his laptop folk excursions, Somnia features Davis exploring ambient territory, the kind that only served as subtext of his previous records, Arbor and Curling Park Woods. The process on this record is fairly transparent: each track consists of a single instrument played through and processed in real-time by a computer. The tone of the source instruments – acoustic guitar, harmonica, Rhodes, magnus chord organ – determine the timbre of the pieces and, because Davis works in a dronesphere that might be significantly harshened by the severe contortion of those sounds, contribute to the record’s summery sameness. In other words, these drones are exactly as beautiful as one might expect them to be, and frequently suffer from the banality of that sort of beauty.
This is a relative 'big' release on the Kranky label but highly recommended.
This is a relative 'big' release on the Kranky label but highly recommended.
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