Sunday 19 April 2015

E.P. Review: Gavin Prior - The Avalon Suite

Gavin Prior The Avalon Suite




Gavin Prior, The Avalon Suite E.P.


Info: Gavin Prior is a Dublin-based musician who currently plays with free jazz / metal trio Tarrachóir (tractor as Béarla) and acappelyptic vocal group, The Primal Barber Trio. Prior graduated from University of Limerick with an MA in Music Technology and has since improvised with many experimental musicians, has toured extensively across Europe, America and Asia and is also the co-founder of the Deserted Village record label.

In December he released The Avalon Suite E.P. (above), containing four short tracks that are cosmic and focus on ambience and feeling. Opening track 'Little Laurie' brings forth feelings of floating through space and has nice classical leanings. The dialogue from each of the tracks come from old English-teaching resource recordings which Prior explains more about below and on tracks like 'Little Laurie' and following number '롯데리아' ('Lottery') you are both hypnotised by the soundscape but not so removed that you aren't drawn to focus on the voice samples. The static and climactic '#COWSPIRACY' leads to the final piece of The Avalon Suite, an almost techno and more interstellar sound on 'Perfume', here stars become blurred lines as you are propelled at high speed, and the break-up and static of the voices seems to signify lost communication as a result of travelling so far into the distance, light-years perhaps! It's an almost therapeutic collection of tracks on this E.P. and certainly a whole rather than individual parts for the listener to absorb, all you really have to do is let go.

In Gavin Prior's own words on the background to the concept behind the E.P.;

"While teaching children English in a hagwon (for-profit evening academy) in Incheon, Korea I was often struck by the bizarre, stilted English in some of the dialogues on the CDs we used for listening classes. I left some choice audio on my hard drive knowing I'd find a use for it some day. The sample used in the first track 'Little Laurie" sounded to me like an inquisitive young Laurie Anderson learning the ways of the world."


Look / Like / Listen & Follow:

Website: https://gavinprior.wordpress.com/ (some great photography here)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/desertedvillage

Label: http://desertedvillage.com/

Bandcamp: https://desertedvillage.bandcamp.com/album/the-avalon-suite

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PriorGavin