Title - Gold [Vinyl]
Artist - Ashley Davies
For those unaware, Gold is the most recent album by Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist Ashley Davies.
Although the
album does pay tribute to the guitar-centric sound of the
mid to late 1960s, much of the 10-track, 36-minute
album falls into a deeply eclectic genre of orchestrated
rock-based instrumentals.
Overall, Gold is an impressive showcase
for Ashley’s drumming, percussion and synth /
keyboards, while it’s also worth noting that his acoustic
and electric guitar work is also prominent on many of the
Gold tracks.
Oh, and another key to the sound of Gold is Ashley’s
string arranger Bryony Marks.
Side A:
1. Birth (2:42)
2. Bush (4:03)
3. Outback (5:54)
4. Discovery (5:01)
5. Gold (2:37)
Side B:
6. Meeting (2:18)
7. Camel (3:17)
8. Walking (2:12)
9. Lost (5:01)
10. Death (3:03)
Opening on the lead-off track, Birth, which itself sounds inspired by the U.K. band Stackridge with a little Penguin Café Orchestra mixed in, the free wheeling and joyfully jaunty track is backed by the statically-charged rush of Bush, and then comes the laid back, rhythmic grooves within Outback, the lighter fare of Discovery and then the ornately sculptured, aching yearn of the titular Gold is brought forth.
Turning the vinyl record over and up next is one of my own personal favorites from the album, the melodically mesmerizing, atmospherically stuttered Meeting which is in turn followed by the spacial qualities found within the rangy Camel, the Hammond and brass-led, and aptly-named beauty Walking is up next, the album rounding out on the veritably shimmering rock of Lost, coming to a close on the rhythmic hipsway of Death.
Assisting Ashley on Gold are a number of musicians, including cameo
vocalists Karen Rush and Tess McKenna, a veritable string
section with violinists Lizzy Welsh and Erkki Veltheim and
cellist Katherine Philp as well as Sam Lemann on second
electric lead guitar and mandolin, to name several of the
musicians here.
The liner notes of Gold, available so far only on black vinyl and digital download, fills the listener in
about the significance of the album, which serves as a kind of instrumental tribute to Ashley’s Uncle Len,
a World War II hero, and specifically the few hundred paintings Len did, expressly those in “The Lasseter
Series”.
Gold has a very cinematic sound with Ashley adding, “I turned Len’s paintings and his story
into a short film using the music from the album as the soundtrack and have recently won 4 awards
from film festivals in New York.”
According to Ashley, “I had been wanting to do an “up” record for a
while. Something that would stimulate and inspire the listener in an emotional way much like the
Lasseter paintings had made me feel, and so, with that in mind, I set out to write an album of ten
instrumental pieces of music that would go with each of the Lasseter paintings.”
Too upbeat to fit into
contemporary prog-rock and too complex for background soundtrack music, Gold in its place sparks the
imagination with a series of beguiling, rock-centric instrumentals that thrives in a variety of sonic
settings.
With ten tracks clocking in at 36 minutes, Gold is guaranteed to move listeners to the brink of
sonic wonderment as they delve into the widescreen musical imagination of Ashley Davies.
Ashley Davies - Discovery [Official Music]
Ashley Davies - Bush [Official Music]
Official Purchase Link
Official Website
Ashley Davies @ Facebook
Ashley Davies @ YouTube
www.strangeloops.com.au