The Squid's Ear Magazine

Davies, Rhodri

An Air Swept Clean of All Distance

Davies, Rhodri: An Air Swept Clean of All Distance (Amgen Records)

First release on the Alt.Vinyl label in 2014, this album finds harpist Rhodri Davies performing on the same instrument as his prior album Wound Response, but here with no amplification, preparations or distortion, improvising through "tumbling phrases, arpeggios and articulate rhythms", in a compelling album of assertive and joyful playing.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Rhodri Davies-lap harp, electronics


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UPC: 5902249003611

Label: Amgen Records
Catalog ID: CD003
Squidco Product Code: 30208

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: UK
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold 3 Panels w/ booklet
Recorded at Blank Studios, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on January 31st, 2014, by Sam Grant.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"The same lap harp is played on both Wound Response and An Air Swept Clean of All Distance but this time the harp is tuned to a different set of fixed pitches. While Wound Response is heavily amplified and distorted, the harp played on An Air Swept Clean of All Distance is acoustic, and played with no amplification, preparations or distortion.

Released for the first time on CD, this re-issue contains accompanying sleeve notes by David Toop. An Air Swept Clean of All Distance was first released on LP with Alt Vinyl, av057 (2014). "Davies settles obsessively on tumbling phrases, arpeggios and articulate rhythms, turning them over and over, letting them develop only within strict limits, as though this fine, prolific adventurous musician is freshly discovering a harp that has been there all along"-Julian Cowley, Wire Magazine 2014

See also Rhodri Davies: Wound Response.

This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Rhodri Davies was born in 1971 in Aberystwyth, Wales and now lives in Gateshead in the northeast of England.

He plays harp, electric harp, live-electronics and builds wind, water, ice and fire harp installations. He has released four solo albums: Trem, Over Shadows, Wound Response and An Air Swept Clean of All Distance.

His regular groups include: a duo with John Butcher, Common Objects, HEN OGLEDD: Dawson - Davies, a trio with David Toop and Lee Patterson, Cranc, The Sealed Knot and a trio with John Tilbury and Michael Duch.

In 2008 he collaborated with the visual artist Gustav Metzger on 'Self-cancellation', a large-scale audio-visual collaboration in London and Glasgow.

New pieces for solo harp have been composed for him by: Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Christian Wolff, Ben Patterson, Alison Knowles, Mieko Shiomi and Yasunao Tone.

In 2012 he was the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Grants to Artists Award."

-Rhodri Davies Website (http://www.rhodridavies.com/words/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Soaked Ruins Of A Raft 2:40

2. In Distortion-Free Mirrors 3:00

3. The Rule Was Corroborated In Non-Ordinary Reality 3:02

4. Each Clear And Sudden Drop Is Itself 3:56

5. Recapitulation Of 1:12

6. Making Anything Perishable That Can Die 1:46

7. Continues, Placement 3:24

8. Fingers Pluck Played On By 1:51

9. A Cut Circle Orbit Becoming A Vrtual Universe 3:43

10. The End Of Now 2:17

11. Outward Radiating Against 2:14

12. Each Annulling The Next... 3:15

13. Wet Thru Mines Stones 2:32

14. On The Outer Reach Of The Unending 4:54

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
Stringed Instruments
London & UK Improv & Related Scenes
Solo Artist Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Amgen Records.


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