David Tranchina album

GREY SKY

(Orenda)

8/10

tran resThis morning a dreamed I was awake, only to awaken later and realise I’d been asleep. This music is the soundtrack to such disorientation. It delights in blurring lines between the conscious and subconscious; in gently bearing us off on oneiric journeys past half-heard sounds towards improbable destinations. Then, just when your eyelids are beginning to flutter and you are wondering if you’d just dropped off and missed a moment, or whether that was just the way the music-dream unfolded, it jolts you into harder-edged consciousness with a piece of skimming bop called Yotabytes.

This is the debut album as leader from LA bassist-composer David Tranchina, who is joined by Gary Fukushima (piano, Wurlitzer), Trevor Anderies (drums) and, on two pieces, singer Argenta Walther. The latter makes a striking first entrance on The Flood, singing wordlessly against a tumult that unwinds to a mood close to serenity. The opening When Will It Rain? begins with a Necks-like piano ostinato which slackens against swishing brushes that cloud the edges of the sparse, monumental bass notes. The album’s only flaw is that it’s too short! I wanted the dream to linger a little longer…