Most of the people reading this blog are probably too young to have ever considered the prospect of “What should the music sound like at my funeral?” or even “What should music sound like at other people's funerals”, so think of this as your introduction. Ava Mendoza's swan-like guitar dips and dodges from in between an assortment of bells, clock-boxes, and misty drum fills created by Nick Tamburro. Play us off, team! Ava is probably best known right now for being a collaborator of tUnE-yArDs, but she's worked with tons of other seminal artists as well, like Carla Bozulich's Evangelista, Nels Cline, Mike Watt, and other members of the holy canon. Nick Tamburro got his start as a member of Seattle's legendary avant R&B team the Dead Science but he's played on endless other records as well. The collaboration between these two has a lot of beauty. In “Fake Funeral Song” Ava erupts in clean, smooth tone, a lullaby in a low-register, punctuated by dippy dots of what can only, MUST ONLY be interpreted as the ticking clock that follows us all around, perched on our left shoulder, registering the exact amount of time we have left. Nick fills in the rhythm with lush cymbals and gongs, orienting the chi of the song and keeping it from being too lonely.
Ava Mendoza & Nick Tamburro, “Penumbra – i. Fake Funeral Song”
You can get the album, Quit Your Unnatural Ways, from Weird Forest now.
