David Garland may not be a household name for many, but he’s a singer-songwriter, composer, instrument designer, illustrator, graphic designer, journalist, and former New York City radio personality. Over the years, he has recorded with a diverse range of artists, including John Zorn, Sufjan Stevens, Meredith Monk, and Sean Lennon. The latter described Garland as someone who “pushes the limits of acceptable harmony and dissonance, yet never at the expense of beauty”. It’s an impressive resume that barely scratches the surface, and his wild, eclectic work continues on a new album that sees the multifaceted artist grappling with loss, specifically his wife’s death from cancer six years ago.
The Spark was recorded primarily in Garland’s home in New York’s Hudson Valley, with Garland playing a variety of instruments – 12-string guitar, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, piano, among others – and is joined by Julian Lampert on double bass and Otto Hauser on drums. The sound is difficult to classify, but Garland’s warmth and honesty always shine through. The vocals seem to echo the deadpan sound of Lou Reed, while the unvarnished honesty recalls Nick Cave at his most direct, and the “outsider” feel is reminiscent of Jonathan Richman and Daniel Johnston. If any of this varied musical palette sounds appealing, The Spark will have you in musical heaven.
The wind instruments that form the melodic basis of tracks like “Feathered Stone” sound like they’re lifted from the orchestral swoop of Van Dyke Parks. Meanwhile, the jazzy balladry of “Clean Up the Room” maintains a refreshing simplicity, as Garland remains resolute in his naked emotions: “Clean up the room,” he sings, “Fold up the laundry / And resolve what goes and what stays.”
Angular, piano-based compositions like “You’re Floating” exhibit a tendency towards jazz and neoclassical, but with Garland’s emotions remaining front and center. “You’re floating, look at that,” he sings. “You are floating up / Comfortably away from me,” in an acceptance of loss that is tender, resolute, and profoundly moving. There are moments when Garland’s eclectic tendencies form a perfect storm, as on the dense, sonically rich “These Days”, where a thick confluence of instrumentation results in a droning, spiky, dissonant swirl that Captain Beefheart would probably envy.
That droning vibe continues in a more airy, ethereal, meditative style on “All with All”, an almost hymn-like performance that sees Garland expressing his loss in a free-form style with the aid of Diane Cluck on vocals. It’s something of a Zen duet that consumes the listener whole. The record’s one cover song, “Mr. Dream”, was composed by the late Ed Askew, an artist Garland knew and championed on his WNYC radio show, Spinning on Air, but, with the aid of a dreamy, lilting arrangement, it fits perfectly in the company of Garland’s own compositions.
The Spark isn’t as experimental as some of Garland’s previous releases; his four-hour album Verdancy (2018), for example, saw him in deep song deconstruction mode. However, on The Spark, he often wraps his wild, unique tendencies within a more traditional song form. In the album’s final track, “You in Particular”, Garland sings passionately alongside the warm glow of synthesizers, on a track that Stephin Merritt would probably love to steal for the next Magnetic Fields record. “I wanna know about you in particular,” he sings, burrowing himself into the direct empathy of love and friendship.
David Garland’s The Spark may be an expression of loss, but it also overflows with kindness, positivity, and the endless curiosity of a truly original artist.