Remixes by Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea

Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea – Remixes (Sonic Cathedral, 2024)

To complement the monumental Reveries LP, Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea offer Remixes, a quartet of new views on their self-described “dronegaze” compositions that unfolds across a succinct, but dynamic, half hour. In addition to an entirely new long-form suite from founding member zakè (aka Zach Frizzell), the collection comprises genre-hopping interpretations from Past Inside the Present veterans awakened souls, and Sonic Cathedral label mates Mark Peters and Not Me But Us, each with their own vision for the “gorgeous effervescence, lush ambience, and classical motifs” (Stationary Travels) of the source material.

“Vale (awakened souls Remix)” takes the serene waves of the original and graces them with successive layers of Cynthia Bernard’s breathy incantations, while slow-burning piano and reverberating guitar create an airiness grounded by minimal drums. The effect is a more cosmic version of the prenatal comforts and sweet sadnesses of slowcore legends Low, its gentle caress lasting only a few precious minutes before vanishing into reversed synths that circulate like gulls in the mist. Bernard’s lyrical refrain, “Weight, fall away”, could scarcely be more fitting.

“Reveries (Not Me But Us Remix)” opens with soft cello, coated in sparkling synths that gradually lead into a patient piano arrangement; as it builds, these elements hold the placid center while sprightly percussion and arpeggiated keyboards dapple the muted background and take it to a more – dare we say – hopeful space. In line with the song’s title, one imagines gliding across an open landscape at the window of a high-speed train, daydreaming past anonymous towns full of lives playing out in peaceful cycles.

The cold open of “Somnium (Mark Peters Remix)” draws its churning strings into a stratosphere of post rock-influenced guitar, reminiscent of his work with Engineers. Its majestic melodic theme is anchored by bass synth and blissed out hand percussion, creating the album’s most psychedelic, trance-inducing passage – a promise of some tantalizing revelation, beyond the horizon line, that seems to appear just as the sun sets and the tape hiss fades out.

“Dawn Chorus Suite (zakè Remix)” is composed from “unused and underused parts and ideas from the Reveries sessions”, and is appropriately the most capacious entry here. Over its ten-plus minutes, we hear not only variation and expansion, but also an encapsulation of the trio’s “special kind of magic [and] musical alchemy” (Complex Distractions), as treated by its most prolific member. We are reintroduced to the sonic theme of waves at the shoreline of the Infallible Sea, as wisps of adagio strings list across the backdrop, and a full-hearted low end provides soft firmament. The entire piece hovers with the delicate but substantial drift of a John Luther Adams opus, until its slow disappearance leaves only the sigh of a lonely violin in its wake.

For those who lost themselves in the ineffable atmospheres of Reveries and justifiably wished for more, Remixes presents the perfect chance to float away, once again, in the embrace of these “world-class dronesmiths” (Juno Records) and each remarkable reimagining.

"Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea is the trio of Zach Frizzell (aka zakè), Marc Ertel, and Damien Duque (aka City of Dawn).

Each is a renowned composer of solo works in his own right, but as a unit they have created some of the most affecting classically-inspired, guitar-based works of the past decade."

-Thomas Meluch [Benoît Pioulard]

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