The Will of Tongues

The Will of Tongues is the new studio album by Sarah Davachi, and it is certainly her most ambitious to date, spanning over two hours, available as a triple vinyl set, or double compact disc in hardback book style packaging. The album features five new works for historical pipe organs, three choral pieces, a suite of “interludes” for various microtonal ensembles, and a longform chamber piece for strings, organ, and tape. In addition to Davachi performing on organ, the album also features an incredible group of musicians from across the US and Europe, including Whitney Johnson (viola), Eyvind Kang (viola), Lucy Railton (cello), Diapason (an experimental brass ensemble from Los Angeles), Phaedrus (a Renaissance flute consort from Switzerland), and Chamber Choir Ireland. The album engages several different compositional methods and concepts, all rooted in the minimalist tradition from which Davachi primarily operates, but underscoring The Will of Tongues as a combined body of work is a deep reverence for the act of listening. This collection of music is not easy listening, and it’s not meant to be – when long durations and a reduction of materials are at play, the ear and mind are forced to confront sound itself and the significant mental spaces that it continually gives rise to. The Will of Tongues is thus a celebration of iterative listening and of extreme confrontation, of intimate aural experience and its vast psychic horizons.