Bleep

Laurus is something between a companion piece and a demo collection for Cantus, Descant, the 2020 LP from organ composer and modern electroacoustic master Sarah Davachi. Taped in the Summer of 2017, these pieces are, in Davachi’s own words, “a more raw and improvisational representation of the composition process [for Cantus, Descant] in its early stages”.

There is undoubtedly plenty of shared ground between the two albums. Both find Davachi layering rich, unbroken organ chords atop one another throughout, the harmonies slowly blooming and receding as the pieces wind onwards. Cuts like ‘Accord Of Voice ii” are slyly hypnotic, the soft drones undulating for long stretches of time, while tracks such as ‘Herber Well’ work with more disquieting and piercing tones. The rawness that Davachi mentions comes through in the relatively unfiltered quality of the recordings - where much of Cantus, Descant was stretched out by light fogs of reverb, the organs of Laurus are comparatively exposed.

Sarah Davachi’s Laurus is both an illuminating accompaniment to the drone specialist’s Cantus, Descant LP and a spellbinding set of organ works in its own right.