ALLIES by Davey Williams and Joel Nelson

"One definition of kitsch is, art that makes you feel that you’re feeling the right thing. This series of very brief recordings of Davey Williams and Joel Nelson suspends the operation of that, presents instead aesthetic objects. Very alert close duos - tending towards brief sharp sounds juxtaposed in something like bursts of fireworks. Fireworks not in the sky though but down here. Not spectacular fireworks - briefly suspended lights. Fireflies.
In a way it’s like a palette cleanser but then you want to taste it again but it’s too quick to taste. It’s a palette cleanser though - after hearing it you taste the sound around you. I would say again - I may be wrong; there may be a lot of long blurred sounds - but I would say, brief sharp sounds that then leave you able to at least note if not hear silence. The tender way the two instruments accompany each other and the way the effects sought for seem to be incremental not blow-you-away star turns helps create a kind of calm, a sense that these are aesthetic objects, not struggles for dominance.
Corrupt naive infantile listener that I am, though, I was able to create program notes for #4, despite the cunning and virtuoso focus of these two musicians. I jotted them down continued through the rest of the album. Then when I listened again my little narrative didn’t seem to work at all. I thought it must be the wrong one. No. It just didn’t suggest the same thing that time. So I worry that I may be feeling the wrong thing.
Such good music."

- Johnny Coley






**I am happy to finally be able to share this duo record. Davey and I had been talking about making an album sense the summer of 2017 when I was visiting Birmingham, Alabama. We finally recorded a year later at East Village Arts, a local music venue open to experimental and improvised music run by Ladonna Smith. It was the only time I played with Davey and all the tracks are completely open improvisations from that afternoon. He called me the second to last week in March 2019 wanting to continue the process of putting this record out and unfortunately passed away April 5th, 2019. It was an honor to have been able to record this record with him and share it in his memory**

Joel Nelson

joelvnelson.com
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