Gail Priest’s work over the past five years has covered some fairly divergent territory. As if seeking out key areas of interest for her sonic pursuits, each of her performances and recording projects in recent times have marked out a potential field for further exploration and eventual development into a full blown presentation. In some respects the debut release from Priest continues this modus operandi. Teaming up with a number of producers from Sydney, Priest weaves her ethereal vocal deconstructions (crystallised most clearly in ‘Dreamwinch’) and textural sonic works into a shifting range of sound fields from essential IDM rhythms to more static states of tone and aural intricacy. It’s perhaps Julian Knowles’ production that lends the majority of shape to this record – partly through the sheer number of pieces he’s involved in and also through his unique reconstitution of Priest’s aesthetic. Jasper Streit’s pieces lend a sharper edge to the record with slow burning fuses of digital electronics and reverberant spaces, whilst Peter Blamey’s coda production finishes the record with a wonderfully provocative slow blur of melody and broken hums.
Perhaps the title of this record reveals something of the process, and indeed the results. These ‘imagined conversations’ speak to a kind of collaborative process perhaps – one that reflects on the nature of production in the digital age, the passing of files back and forth and the meta-conversation that take place at the creative level. If this release acts the end of an initial state of exploration for Priest or in fact the beginning of a lifetime of shifting contrasts in sound the end result is the same – a fine example of considered sound states that are offered, received and enjoyed.
Lawrence English
*
