Nova Ahead 15

You may know that I, normally, spend all year dreaming up the lineup for the forthcoming Thing in the Spring, which in this wild pandemic season that we still find ourselves in, is pretty impossible to make happen. After a full year of it essentially absent from my brain, there is music that I am returning to that is now planting the seeds again. Of course everything is up in the air, but we at Nova are very much looking forward to presenting art and music in earnest as soon as it is safe to do so; as for the Thing, we’ll see how the spring and summer develop. One artist that I’ve tried booking over the last few years is Vagabon, a Cameroonian-American musician whose albums and live performances speak to a quiet introspection, lyrical hooks and interesting riffs floating in a synthy pool. In the pool is a fountain that shoots light instead of water into the surrounding air, breathing a crackling electric atmosphere around each song, as they coalesce into a properly consistent album presentation. We saw her open for Courtney Barnett in the before times at Mass MoCA in that huge courtyard, the tunes drifting like invisible dunes, getting into everything, she even sailed right to us with pleasantries and handshakes, introduced by a mutual friend. Jeez Louise, just writing about that show is sending me down a rabbit hole of memories and the deep loss of live music throughout this sad global drudge. 

With Forbes Graham joining us on Saturday evening, I had to put on Kayo Dot’s Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue. I first heard this band’s debut album on Tzadik, Choirs of the Eye, and it wildly combined so many things I was interested in, and they were also weirdly active in the Boston diy scene; these two albums especially, deftly dip and describe an edge of uncertainty, unbelievably heavy guitar-based jags, modern classical, experimentation, and even an ECM jazz vibe at times. I got to play a few shows with them a while back, and that was where I met Forbes. He was part of the band for their sophomore album, and his playing and sensibilities within this gigantic and cryptic sound were touchstones, and helped me to make better sense of what was going on. One of my favorite things in the world is when music is so cacophonous and insane, only to drop into a poetic tenderness, a shift makes the best sense if you experience it in the wake of the heavy waves of the previous movement. This type of variation in sound and vibration establishes a wide dynamic range that prepares for the journey ahead; I highly recommend a full headphone listen. 

After my ear-splitting music days of touring around blanketed in distortion and waking each morning with my brain ringing like a bell, I got way into performing free form music, and again ran into Forbes Graham. His solo trumpet work, and playing with him in an improvisational setting, is to truly have one foot in the past and one in the future of sound and experimentation. His playing certainly brings to mind Don Cherry in these racing, slurred visions, but then all of a sudden a perfectly phrased modal insinuation, right out of an underground club in the 50s. (Some of the) Ten Days is his latest solo album, and within minutes you’re transported back to this jazz halcyon, however, he’s bringing you there on a weird digital drip, like a million tiny mice connected to microchips and drum triggers. His trumpet will also take these amazing dives, blurring the lines between inside and outside, interacting with the sound treatments, creating something that feels both unique and prophetic, unsettling and prescient. This kind of music can be considered challenging, but I’m telling you, it’s an opportunity to open a door in your brain that you never have to close again. I know that we have touched on this over the past year, listening, seeking new sounds; the decision to take these steps, to me, is a political action. It is a conscious choice to open your heart, which is what you’re doing when you are giving your time to engage in something made by another human being. 

Will Killingsworth has an absurdly deep resume, stretching back to 1990s Alabama, and he’s written, recorded, played on, and released scores of interesting and varied records over the past couple of decades. I’ve been trying out one of his prototype pedals, Intentions II (and yes he now travels between circuits to actually and literally engineer heavy sounds), as well as listening to his latest turn as an instrumental composer for the electric guitar; River of Sight is a collection of “Textures” and also, I’m assuming, a new moniker. It goes out but always never reaching too far, maybe even hovering like a kid holding onto a branch that’s bending enough to put an inch of air between their feet and the ground; but every muscle and fiber is stretched and oxidized with the cool sweetness of living. It sounds like it is connecting to the fabric of your surroundings because it is; it’s the rooty gnarled tendrils of the earth and Will is a documentarian. 

There’s a lot of options for you folks in this one, so take your time! Don’t forget that the stream this week is on Saturday night! Forbes Graham is worth your time and consideration, so do join us if you have some to give. This has been Eric Gagne for Nova Arts (check out novaarts.org/events for info about the livestream series).