Reveries - Mini-LP Slipcase CD [UK Import] by Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea

DISTRIBUTED TITLE ◾️◾️◾️

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🇬🇧 Sonic Cathedral / DCATIS
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PRESSING INFORMATION:
Glass-mastered, silkscreen printed CD housed in a mini-LP style card sleeve. Edition of 500.


DAWN CHORUS AND THE INFALLIBLE SEA - REVERIES
​(Sonic Cathedral, 2024)

"There is a particular, melancholy vibration that resonates through any given album closer, whether it’s in the arrangement and atmosphere, or in the basic understanding that an experience is coming to its end. A well-composed denouement can bring together loose ends, act as a thematic refrain or create an unexpected twist, but it’s always a defining element of the whole. With Reveries, Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea (the trio of Zach Frizzell, Marc Ertel and Damien Duque) offer a sustained embrace of this enigmatic mood across six patiently-evolving pieces, each of which manifests an aching, funereal fullness.

The opening title track emerges quietly in a swirl of strings the texture of tulle, while a foundation of warm low-end and sighing synths carries the piece into a pensive, pastel haze of overlapping vapors. From here the album pulses like a hibernation heartbeat, rising and receding in slow-motion, each entry a vital breath to ward off a crystalline cold. “Deus” eases its fittingly reverent grain into a glorious minor-key immensity, while lead single “Cadere” pulls together an evolving cast of orchestral instruments into a comforting devotional that exemplifies the artists’ growth and development across the past half-decade.

Like-minded stalwarts Stars of the Lid were known to work with string players based on their ability to maintain perfect intonation on the same note for minutes on end, with the intention of fostering lucid dreams during their performances – in a similar spirit, “Somnium” plays out in diffuse, shimmering melodic rounds while a roiling sea churns beneath. This piece might bear the closest resemblance to Frizzell’s (known as zakè) landmark Orchestral Tape Studies series, but in the context of collaboration it finds its own echelon of expressive allure.

The final act of Reveries comprises two angles of a view across the plain: “Vale” blossoms from a pair of sparse, alternating chord swells that transform into a soothing, angelic mist, while “Aufero” is a perfect coda that reprises the low-end rumble of the album’s overture under an aural cotton batting that evokes summer rainfall, or the idle hiss of worn tape.

According to the artists, the creation of this suite was “heavily reliant on improvisation, intuition, and allowing the compositions to exist in their own moment; the aim was a feeling of fluidity and a sense that every instrument has its place and purpose.” Further echoing the bedrock philosophy of many releases on his own Past Inside the Present label, Frizzell adds, “We live in an era of infinite distraction, where often the most valuable thing you can find is a respite for the soul.” With “Reveries”, Frizzell, Ertel and Duque grant us just such an antidote to anxiety, acknowledging inevitable ends but leaving the window open for whatever might follow."

Written by Thomas Meluch
​[Benoît Pioulard]


◾️◾️◾️ REVIEWS

"Lush and widescreen ambient single detailed with subtly uplifting chords coated in lo-fi hiss and a decidedly spiritual edge."

-Juno Records

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"There’s a special kind of magic that happens with Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea. A musical alchemy occurs within the lush sound layers, processed noise, and ethereal melodies that emanate from their songs. 'Reveries' is subtle, evocative brilliance. This ambient collective work in more of a cinematic landscape here; still retaining that amorphous approach to composition but showing distinct melodic motives. Reveries leans on emotional heft, bringing to mind composers like Vangelis and Jóhann Jóhannsson. The heady intent remains, but with the added bonus of a beating heart at the center of this sonic cloud. Whenever there’s new music from Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea there’s much to rejoice. This music collective are doing great things sonically, spiritually, and emotionally in their songs. This is church for those that aren’t religious; worship music for the humanist. A musical escape of the highest order."

-Complex Distractions




◾️◾️◾️ ABOUT

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 – in particular, the inaugural full-length Liberamente (Azure Vista, 2020) and its gorgeous, shapeshifting follow-up Reveries (Sonic Cathedral, 2024). With an inventive approach that cross-pollinates a number of genres, they have adopted “dronegaze” as a preferred shorthand for the carefully layered, texturally rich themes that Stationary Travels praised as “cocoon[s] of serenity”.

Reveries picks up where the trio left off after the resounding success of their critically acclaimed full-length album, Liberamente, which saw its debut on Azure Vista Records (Denmark) in late 2020. Together, they craft delicately textured and slowly unfurling sonic vistas, occupying a unique aural domain that lies between guitar-driven drone music and modern classical compositions.

While their previous work was steeped in guitar-laden drone, Reveries represents a refined evolution, leaning more heavily toward string-based arrangements and compositional virtuosity. This is the essence of "dronegaze" music, pushing the boundaries of the ambient genre while embracing a profound auditory expression.

Dawn Chorus and the Infallible Sea made their first appearance on Sonic Cathedral by providing a rework of the arrangement Silver River originally produced by Engineers songwriter and solo artist Mark Peters, released on The Magic Hour EP [SCR233, 10"] in March of 2023. The EP included two brand new tracks alongside two remixes of songs from Mark Peters' acclaimed album ‘Red Sunset Dreams’, also released on Sonic Cathedral.

“Their album Liberamente on Azure Vista Records was one of my favourite records of 2020. It has some of the best ambient guitar recordings I’ve heard for a long time. I love how they’ve re-contextualised B.J.’s pedal steel with a different kind of melancholic backdrop – it’s much more reflective and dreamlike than the original. It is awe-inspiring ambient Americana.” -Mark Peters