Gabbeh, by Unchained

Gabbeh

by Unchained

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1.	Largo 09:16	buy track
2.	Dru 04:29	buy track
3.	Rond-Point 03:31	buy track
4.	Gabbeh 07:45	buy track
5.	Rambler 05:31	buy track
6.	Drac 06:49	buy track

about

A Colourful Storm begins 2024 with a luxurious suite of daydreaming introspection courtesy of Unchained, the longstanding solo project of Nathaniel Davis.

Recorded at home between 2020 and 2023, Gabbeh is the latest expression of Davis’s guitar-based instrumental musings and represents an almost two decade-long stylistic evolution of his self-released noise tapes and CD-Rs into romantic, bossa nova-influenced melody-making. He wrote the tracks sporadically, with minimal instrumentation and intervention. Electric guitar, bass improvisations and rhythms from an old drum machine are layered and given new life, the space between them softly breathing with minutiae of the everyday: the buzz of cicadas, the passing of cars, the whistling of passersby.

The psychogeography of Grenoble, Davis’ home since 2018, played a conscious role in the weaving of Gabbeh’s fabric: “I think certain songs reflect, in ways, Grenoble’s natural surroundings. ‘Drac’ is named after the river that flows from the mountains down to the city… ‘Dru’ is the name of a well-known peak near Chamonix”. And from the city’s strange humidity, alpine surroundings and significance in the lives of, say, Henri Fantin-Latour and Stendhal, feelings at once hopelessly romantic and deeply melancholic permeate throughout the album.

Opener ‘Largo’ sets the mood, its primitive samba rhythm concealed by a cloud of saudade, guided by the spirit of Wes Montgomery. “I take inspiration from Wes’s disregard for conventional technique and his insistence on feeling above all else,” reflects Davis, who also cites the multifaceted dexterity of Toninho Horta and lucid expressionism of Maurice Deebank as influences on his work. The bebop sensibility follows suit in the title track, the tension between its angular picks and percussive shuffle a wondrous balancing act, while the intoxicating sway of ‘Rambler’, an updated version of a track Davis self-released in 2020, is perhaps the most poignant expression of longing and loss we’ve heard in recent years.

Pure atmospheric bliss floating into the clouds, Gabbeh captures a longing for endless, hazy days.

credits

released March 21, 2024

Nate Davis: electric guitar, electric bass, drum machine, synthesizer
Recorded in Grenoble, 2020-23
Mastered by Mark Klon

Monotype prints by Hélène Rivière

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about

Unchained Grenoble, France

---LIVE 2024---

Jan 26 - BERLIN, Aktionshaus
Feb 1 - SAMSØ (DK), Agerupgård
Feb 3 - COPENHAGEN, Mayhem
Mar 23 - BARCELONA, Trama 34
Apr 6 - GRENOBLE, Local Autogéré
May 25 - COLOGNE, tba
May 26 - BRUSSELS, Ateliers Mommen ... more

Recommendations

discography

Gabbeh

Mar 2024
Pic

Sep 2020
N.D. Visitor

Dec 2018
Pedrosa/Tropism

Jun 2014

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