Sean McCann Ensemble – https://mccann.bandcamp.com
Sarah Davachi – https://sarahdavachi.bandcamp.com/
In many ways this concert was about the light and the dark, the sacred and the profane. As you can see from the images, Sean McCann’s ensemble was bathed in light through stained glass, the last sunlight of the day. Sarah Davachi’s set began after dark, and all house lights were turned off except for the towering candles she surrounded her performance table with.
The music too was respectively light and dark in character. Sean McCann’s electro-acoustic work summoned the divine, with spoken word elements as chorus from his three female vocalists creating a shifting, pitched texture of the soft centers and edges of speech. This section of the piece created ASMR shivers as the shhh’s and smacks of women’s voices melted together in loops and layers. The piece then evolved into a tapestry of live piano, flute, and violin with electronics, hanging in the air like a blanketing haze of intermingling melodic fragments. The piece was all about soft edges and euphonious interlacing voices, smooth motion, and tranquility. The ensemble included Sean McCann (composer), Sarah Jane Hargis (flute, vocals), Courtenay Paris (vocals), Linda Akinkunmi (violin, vocals), and Sean Tomas (piano).
Sarah Davachi by contrast descended upon the sanctuary like a high goth priestess, surrounding her performance table with large, striking candles, just as the blackout curtains of moonrise enclosed the chamber in pitch dark. The seamless original piece she played included dirge-like organs pulsing for sustained, low pitches, rumbling in the acoustic crucible of the main hall. The slowly building drone eschewed melody for might, with heavy, ceremonial timbres manipulated live to create voluminous shapes. What seemed like eternity passed as these dark waves washed over the pews, until the final sample broke the spell into our first melody, a guitar (?) sampled slow and gangly to play out the conclusion of the piece. For sure, there were worshipers well aware of her work in attendance, and all were left changed physically and spiritually by the part music, part seance conjured up by Davachi that night.
Austin Davis, performing at Drone Camp 3
