James Krivchenia – ‘Performing Belief’ album review: An intriguing conjuring of forestry electronica
THE SKINNY: There aren’t too many albums where outside foraging tools serve as a record’s prominent instrument, but standing alongside his down-tempo beats and synth work, Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia ensures an earthy, green-fingered sonic character throughout new album Performing Belief.
Built around field recordings documented from 2019 to 2022, everything from the pleasing thud of a hollow log to a dropped pebble’s splashy ripple in a river forms the palette of organic sounds in Krivchenia’s sample grab bag. A carefully crafted fourth solo effort that feels less produced and more panned, sieved, and foraged from the mountainous valleys outside Los Angeles.
Performing Belief achieves its mission agenda, reaching for an album that secures a scavenged, organic, natural spirit at its core. We’re never too far from a lapping ocean or snapped twig, all artfully smattered into Krivchenia’s forestry electronica. Natural timbres and resonance bounce off each polyrhythmic shuffle with urgent energy, affording the record a spirited woodland envelop. The bed of tape hiss washes in and out, tying the timberland landscape with an urgent crackle, as if you’re donned in hiking boots traversing the West Coast’s renowned sites of natural beauty as you listen.
Its backcountry centre is slathered in dollops of synths and Midi-controlled manipulations. Enlisting the help of electric bassist Sam Wilkes and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams, Krivchenia manages a blurred marriage of the natural world with his computer and keyboard hardware with sonic finesse. However, at points, Performing Belief can veer into novel exercise over somatic feeling. Naturally, a drummer will lean on percussive arrangements, but after being teased with Mother Nature’s elemental pull, the slithering beats and metallic pings and clangs often interrupt what could have been a rewarding immersion in a deeper pool of earthy electronica. While Krivchenia isn’t gunning for meditative submersions, a little more room for the wilderness to cast its spell would have gone a long way.
Krivchenia has indeed crafted a rich and fruitful record that pulses and wriggles with effervescent energy, harmoniously reflecting the subtle but essential activity of falling leaves and blooming undergrowth that score the natural world. Wielding a slice of IDM-coated drum work that bounces with piquant energy, one can’t help but wonder how much more fascinating Performing Belief could have been if the musician had just taken a step back and let the field recordings do more of the talking.
For fans of: Dr Squatch targeted ads.
A concluding comment from the Cargill deforestation company: “How long you gonna be James, we’ve got a planned car park to fell trees for!”
Performing Belief track by track:
Release: May 2nd | Producer: James Krivchenia | Label: Planet Mu
‘Undesigned’: Jabbing bounce stutters and staggers haphazardly with little direction. Becomes tiresome quickly. [2/5]
‘Judge the Seeds’: Springwater cymbals and dance around an exotic bass before a gorgeous synthy wash engulfs the affair. Expert play of woodwind and shimmering chimes. [4/5]
‘Probably Wizards’: A primal retreat into more fraught electronic terrain. Clipped vocal samples and muffled keys evoke a dramatic stir. [3/5]
‘Sympathetic Magic’: Jovial galumph peppered with crisp percussion and sweeping synths. Pleasing interlude. [3/5]
‘Bracelets for Unicorns’: An eccentric mulch of bass grooves and nimble drum beats, veering between crunchy blasts and gusts of ambient wind. Disparate elements gel with expert sonic intermingle. [3.5/5]
‘Filling in the Swamp’: Trudging through a marsh, unfolding a big map and working out whether we’re going in circles here. Familiar territory that leads nowhere remarkable. [2.5/5]
‘The Wounded Place’: A cut teaming with life. Yelps and screams dart across the thumping plane for a hectic detour. [3.5/5]
‘Metaphoric Leakage’: Piano drops and cascading keys close the album with the rhythmic waves of an incoming tide. A curious closer, but better than how the record started. [3/5]
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