DAVID ALLRED - The Cell

Slipping quietly into the world of modern classical, singer-songwriter David Allred continues his artistic partnership with Peter Broderick, releasing a mini-album, “The Cell”, which cements his image as a folksinger in love with nocturnal, introspective atmospheres. Seven tracks, three of them very brief and one lost in pure instrumental ecstasy. In many ways an unusual project, almost a sketch, a demo in an advanced state of composition.

Strange as it may sound, the expressive force is not diminished by the record's fleetingness. It draws its strength above all from one of the most intense compositions in the musician's catalogue, a track that previewed the release with a charming video from the Sound Gallery Session series. “Nature's Course” is almost a hymn: a hesitant piano melody that grows with bittersweet tones, through constant harmonic variations that pay homage to both Tim Buckley and Nick Drake, celebrating an increasingly personal and original chamber-folk minimalism.

On “The Cell” the emotional tension is constant, whether the musician steps aside for the sound of the violin in the brief instrumental “Mandatory Soul”, or when the voice takes hold of the soul of the title track, shifting from a prayer-like singing to a mystical, ancestral cry of release. Delicate fragments of ambient-folk, at times fractured (“Fading Away”), at others left drifting amid hums and reverb (“Full Moon”), finally find peace in the accomplished chamber-folk of “Lexington Hills”, adorned with piano, synths, trumpets and strings.

It becomes easy to forgive David Allred for having hastily assembled this modest set of compositions, some perhaps too rough to shine on their own (“Family”). “The Cell” confirms that the Californian musician is on the verge of full artistic realization, and this short release is merely a tasty and genuine appetizer of wonders to come.

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14/06/2019