Daughter's Fever by Peter Knight and Grand Salvo

Co-led by Peter Knight, leader of the Australian Art Orchestra (trumpet and electronics) and singer-songwriter, Paddy Mann, of revered alt-folk group Grand Salvo, along with highly regarded Australian contemporary classical/jazz musicians Joe Talia (drums & Revox B77 tape machine) Erik Griswold (toy piano & prepared piano), Vanessa Tomlinson (junk percussion, marimba & vibraphone) and Andrew Brooks (saxophone), Daughter's Fever spins haunted folk, ambient pop and free improvised textures into an other-worldly place similarly inhabited by David Sylvian, Mark Hollis and Dean Roberts.

Paddy Mann’s distinctive tenor voice floats over spatters of electroacoustic crackle, bowed cymbal drones, junk percussion and toy piano, to create a sound that is at once alluring and strange. He reveals dreamscapes in whispers, sings of unresolved longing, and tells of a mysterious illness that threatens the life of a child.

Finalist in 2015 Australian Music Prize

"The idea sparked when folk singer Paddy Mann (Grand Salvo) and Australian Art Orchestra trumpeter Peter Knight discovered they both wanted to merge abstract musical expression with more direct forms such as  singing. Three years and many collaborative sessions on, their wishes were fulfilled. The pensive fragility of Mann's voice drifts in and out of arrangements bent on either hypnotising or haunting you. He sings of a daughter's "fierce" fever – "It burned in her cheeks/And soaked in her sheets" – her bygone ailment staining the songs a melancholic sepia. In a time when production makes anything possible, this record reminds you what rich inner worlds can be summoned without it. There is electronic shading here but it never diminishes the record's tangibility. With its Krautrock beat, care of drummer Joe Talia, The Dark Room is as anchored as these airy yet psychically suffocating compositions get. Vanessa Tomlinson and Andrew Brooks (saxophone) round out the rare chemistry.” KATE HENNESSY SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Perpetually curious, composer/trumpeter Peter Knight's practice thrives in the spaces between
genres, categories, and cultures. His recent solo work extends the possibilities of his instrument with innovative approaches that interweave acoustic preparations, extended techniques with electroacoustic processing via laptop, vintage delays, tape machines, amplifiers, and pedals.

peterknightmusic.com
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