DIVR Is This Water LP

RIYL: The Necks, Dan Nicholls, Joona Toivanen Trio (feel free to come up with more?)

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The Swiss trio divr debuts on We Jazz on 2 February with their new album "Is This Water". divr is Philipp Eden on keys, Jonas Ruther on drums and Raphael Walser on bass, and they play largely acoustic improvisations which loop without ever quite repeating. The new album is mixed & post-produced by Dan Nicholls (of Y-OTIS).

“We play in multi-directional time. You could hear three different timings, but on the other hand it’s together. We land in the same place. It’s not done with maths, it’s more about entering a flow”, say the band members, based in Basel (Eden) and Zurich (Ruther, Walser), the city where they all met more than 15 years ago.

“It’s a free approach to playing time. We don’t refer to a straight metre. But play around it. We never repeat something exactly, it develops with every turn, there’s always a small difference.”

Their music is elegant in its intricacy while covering a wide dynamic range. Opener "As Of Now" begins with languid chords on the piano, bass and drums skimming over the surface offered by Eden. Later comes a rush of energy, the piano briefly switching into more jagged terrain before peeling back. From there the album journeys through different intensities, rising and falling in smooth arcs as if you’re hearing their conversation move from gentle pleasantries to more heated discussions.

"Is this Water" presents a band who's heading into a direction of their own, crafting pieces out of improvising together and tapping into a natural brand of instant composition. Nicholls' edits and post production give the music another layer, one drawing from field recordings and layered textural ideas. Together, the elements form a sound that feels personal, organic and forward-reaching at the same time.

A1/1. As Of Now
A2/2. Upeksha
A3/3. Supreme Sweetness
A4/4. 42
A5/5. VHS Tomorrow
B1/6. Tea High
B2/7. All I Need
B3/8. Echo’s Answer
B4/9. A Glass Is No Glass Is a Glass