DANNY VALENTINE AND THE MEDITATIONS
D V A T M [Danny Valentine & the Meditations]
In 2007 two Daniels and a Kristian had a dream to create a band that did not exist, each player a character in search of an author... We made a record called the Lion the Fish and the Bear, each animal representing one of these versions of us... then we moved into a more organic reality where we found a new freedom to create. We have made another album - The Darkest Days of the Empire - it catalogues nine years of change and growth, becomingmen becoming men and a nothingness that has self-fulfilled.
These days we are three Daniels, one Philip and a Jimmy and we live in and around West London. We are proud to be local and independent. We have been humbled by the many wonderful musicians who gave time and energy to this record. On occasion we perform and you may find up to ten of us taking the stage, where voices and trumpets and beautiful noise interplay with pounding drums and dubbed up bass straight from the dirty streets we come from.
During 2020, two of DVATM’s Daniels, DJ Darriba and DHR Gibbs, stole snatches of time between lockdowns and other covid restrictions to get together (masked, gloved, bound, gagged) to try and make some music to retain a sense of sanity. With DJ taking the drum kit, and DHR singing and playing guitar, piece by piece 8 songs came together. Through virtual sessions, DJ’s compadre from The Durrell Family, Mike Jones, sprinkled a special sauce of mandolins, 12 strings and other flavours and so ‘A Forest, An Ocean’ was born.
The 8 songs contained within traverse themes of isolation, anger, self-doubt and fear. Using imagery from the ocean and the animal kingdom, these elemental songs take inspiration from psychedelic folk, pop and rock songs of the late 1960s, early 1970s. They have a lo-fi, underground feel - mostly recorded in pay-by-the-hour rehearsal rooms and inside the corrugated iron safety of DHR’s mum’s garage.
Seeing themselves as forest wizards, DJ and DHR both took solace in the wild and green surrounds of local woodland, weaving the magic of those special spaces into this rough cut gem that all of us here at DVATM hope you enjoy…
In January 2019, several members of DVATM and friends congregated one frozen Sunday morning to improvise a soundtrack to an imagined exhibition of life drawings created by celebrated artist Rainer Stolle.
The process was simple, Rainer would display one of his works and the assembled musicians would begin an improvisation, each one taking their turn to lead the piece. Rainer would then provide visual cues for movement and ending. As an added layer of creation, after the pieces were recorded, Layla Mohamed, also a celebrated artist and illustrator and a contemporary of Rainer’s, added some improvised vocals to some of the pieces.
The pieces were recorded by Jude Rawlins at his studio in Whitechapel. They were mixed by DHR Gibbs in the Dark Room 3. The musicians involved were:
Daniel Darriba - drums
James Devonshire - bass guitar
Takatsuna Mukai - violin
Mike Jones - lap steel and acoustic guitars, mandolin
Davide de Giorgio - electric guitar
Jimmy Bracher - electric guitar
Layla Mohamed - vocals
Philip Dawson - first synthesiser
DHR Gibbs - second synthesiser
Rainer Stolle - dynamics and direction