The second release of the venerable Katuktu Collective’s spring offering sees the Californian label open our ears to some new sonic adventures with drummer and composer Justin Devries. For his solo debut ‘Unconditional Propositions’ the Vancouver-based musician has gathered together the Universal Affirmation Ensemble, a group of players from across Canada, like-minded in their boundary pushing verve. Devries’s original intention for UAE may have been to develop a sound based around rhythmic patterns he’d been taught by the Balinese Gamelan innovator I Wayan Sinti but that plan has burst open in other directions. ‘Unconditional Propositions’ doesn’t simply draw on the intensity and tonal weave of traditional Indonesian music, it reframes patterns, reviews possibilities and represents something beyond a fusion which echoes Gamelan’s integrity. So inspired by and inspiring further, sums up the Universal Affirmation Ensemble’s soundscape notion.
Opening track First Principles immediately underlines Devries and co’s intentions to interact and surprise. Twin guitars start porch-lit and homely, flutes warmly sighing while the drums stroke a welcome. It’s an opening song which at first lets the layers build, stretching out while the guitar chords thrum and the woodwind trills sunnily. A slight pause interrupts the scene, Devries and Cole Schmidt’s searching guitar patterns pierced by rising flutes until pow! – the ensemble hurtles through a drum thrashed, Don Cab-level math rock coda.
It’s not just the dynamic thrill which stands out here it’s the unconventional sonic profile of Universal Affirmation Ensemble. Drums, twinned guitars and bass plus a pair of flutes for detailing may appear knowingly post rock but the complex, tightly choreographed patterns that the instruments follow, create a unique mesh of surround-sound. Glacial Erratic brings another similarly packed journey. Anh Phung’s fulsome flutes stroke through an understated melody before the tingling guitars make their descent. The tune is episodic, regular stops and starts with the ensemble gathering impetus after each pause towards a Do Make Say Think controlled crescendo.
With this level of complexity reminiscent of Fripp/Belew era King Crimson, you might assume that Universal Affirmation Ensemble’s focus is on structure but UAE actually thrive on a looseness around the edges and surges of energetic immediacy. Those patterns are there to be played with. Devries’s songs come drawn from reflections, impressions, feelings and places rather than being purely experiments with form. The gentle Fuzzy Logic shimmers with lo-fi innocence, those pared back guitars and soft humming flutes hovering quirkily somewhere between new age and easy listening in a Sandro Perri kind of way. Benediction takes a Fahey turn with flute and rootsy guitar yearning and yelping together. Here the pastoral mood is enriched by field recorded birdsong, a rural ambience which resurfaces with Sheena Fayowski’s subtle electronics on Sawmill Road where footsteps and raindrops merge with sombre tones before a ratcheting guitar/drum phrase rumbles like a band-saw.
Given the initial premise for Universal Affirmation Ensemble music being built on the rhythmic foundations of Gamelan it’s inevitable that Devries drums are often central to the pieces on the album. The slow core simplicity of Glossolalia is underpinned by stoic guitar and bass minimalism leaving his explosive battery of rolls and crashes to speak out, possessed. The krautrock, Wire referencing Send -Receive lulls you to thinking the album’s maximal overtones are being downplayed until the tune rips free, whipped along by Devries’s double rhythms. The guitar, flutes and bass phrases spiral giddily here, relieved only by a spooky slow passage where you can sense the deep breath of the players, waiting for the next wild pirouette.
Having ‘Unconditional Propositions’ as a title may be a nod towards the album’s ambient intentions. Clearly Justin Devries has delivered a series of intriguing experimental rock pieces which open up different spaces for you to explore and interpret. Intricate, intense, intimate and intriguing, welcome to Universal Affirmation Ensemble’s music.
Get your copy of ‘Unconditional Propositions’ by Universal Affirmation Ensemble direct from Katuktu Collective HERE
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