While its title at first calls to mind a Jodorowskian kitchen sink psychedelia, Desvelada and Sprælle’s debut EP as a duo ’escaping from the body of a sleeping hummingbird’ veers tonally closer to the twilight realm of Béla Tarr. The work summons images. Empty windswept expanses, conversational vocals that seem to phase in and out of focus, spare synth bass and mournful drones create for us a hinterland of abandoned narratives, of characters unsure or unaware or unwilling to see that they are ghosts, but carrying with them a fatigued and defiant air of hope throughout.

Hailing from central Texas and west of France, Desvelada and Sprælle met in student living spaces while studying in Austin, Texas. The pair’s deep bond and friendship soon came to resemble something more like a romance, they began to produce pieces of music together, honing their skills in the small but burbling scene of Texas experimental live music. Sprælle’s art rock beginnings and distended guitar and production work folded lovingly into Desvelada’s choir upbringing and live vocal processing to create a sound and feeling all their own. Filmic and distant, like an aerial view of a springtime meadow timelessly marooned in suburbia instead of prehistory.

Taking cues from artists as varied as Tricky to David Berman, Ryuichi Sakamoto to Jorge Luis Borges, Sprælle and Desvelada sus from their toolkit a reserved storybook that speaks rather than sings. Percussive elements shuffle along like creekwater driftwood, loons in the reedbeds, all chirps and croaks; the arroyo at dusk. ‘escaping from the body of a sleeping hummingbird’ is a hushed purge of woodland noir, of interior poetry, watching the fog slowly overcome what’s left of the evening light, begging the spirit to speak.

Tracklist:
1. épié
2. linde cruel
3. turn to talk
4. venus purs
5. tree up ahead


tree up ahead

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