Sometimes a juxtaposition of styles produces something wonderful. The new album from Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn is such a thing. Pigments, out today on Merge Records, marries emotive vocals with an intuitive sort of backing. Portions of this would have been called ambient in an earlier era, but why try to label this at all? It just needs to be absorbed.
"Coral" eases us into Pigments, and the opening track isn't the only selection here that had me thinking of The Moon and the Melodies. "Sandstone" finds Dawn Richard weaving her voice around the bass and keys, gradually pulling the song up into the air, while "Cerulean" places Richard's voice forward in the mix. The synth touches, and sax notes, stitch a melody around Dawn's performance, and the whole thing is a thing of grace and beauty. It's also a good example of this album's presentation of music which defies easy description. "Crimson" has the sleek texture of something from Hats, the second Blue Nile record, even as closer "Umber" more directly pulses with a faint rhythmic energy.
There are parts of this that may recall Massive Attack for some listeners, even as I kept going back in my mind to Victorialand for examples of similar instrumental passages. Of course, Dawn Richard's voice is doing something different here in vocal terms, and she modulates the emotions in her delivery in a masterful way. Still, the record is a showcase for both the music of Spencer Zahn and the vocals of Dawn Richard. The pairing is entrancing throughout the course of this album.
Pigments by Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn is out today on Merge Records.
[Photo: Clifford Usher]