Formats
CFUL0359 - LP
Details
Some records arrive exactly when they're made. Others have the patience to wait. For more than a decade, Nick Jonah Davis has established himself as one of Britain's most distinctive guitarists, creating music that feels both deeply rooted and quietly untethered. Drawing from the lineage of American solo guitar, British folk traditions, country blues and free improvisation, his recordings possess a rare ability to evoke both place and possibility. Rose Delta Rising continues that journey, but it also marks something of a departure. Supported by funding from Arts Council England, Davis set out to explore what might happen when his solitary guitar pieces were opened up to collaboration. The resulting sessions brought together an extraordinary group of musicians: drummer Joe Danks, bassist Neal Heppleston, and composer Richard "Biff" Birkin, whose sensitive string arrangements reveal new dimensions within the music without ever obscuring its quiet heart. The recordings took place at Black Bay Studio in the Outer Hebrides, overlooking the shifting waters and weather of one of Britain's most extraordinary landscapes. With producer Pete Fletcher behind the desk and assistant Cal Roden sending each take into motion with the wonderfully understated phrase, "That's yous away...", the sessions unfolded without pressure or pretence. Outside, Atlantic winds swept across the bay. Inside, a group of trusted friends worked with calm purpose to create the album. That sense of trust permeates every corner of Rose Delta Rising. Some of its pieces reach back years, finding new lives in the company of fellow musicians; others emerged through experimentation, improvisation and patient refinement. One composition grew from a homemade third bridge fashioned from a length of fretwire fixed to a twig. Another evolved slowly over many years, inspired in part by reflecting on Peter Green's remarkable The Green Manalishi. The album's title piece blossomed unexpectedly when Birkin, moved by an early version, wrote an additional string arrangement that transformed it still further. Gayle Brogan (Pefkin/ Burd Ellen) was asked if she would try some overdubs and true to form, she brought something singular and heady into the mix, adding to its hazy atmosphere. Yet the album's title reaches back even further. As a child, Davis watched his father fly enormous delta kites using oversized fishing reels, sending them impossibly high until they inevitably surrendered to the wind. One day, after a crash that left string tangled through the branches of a tree, the kite appeared to have vanished completely. While his father searched above, young Nick happened to be looking across a nearby lake. Slowly, impossibly, the pink delta kite rose from beneath the water's surface, emerging silently from the depths. It was one of those rare childhood moments that resist explanation, a brief encounter with wonder before adulthood teaches us to explain everything away. Years later, that memory returned whenever Davis listened to the music that would become Rose Delta Rising. Artist David Hand recreated the kite for the album artwork, and together they flew it once more across Stanton Moor, not far from the ancient Nine Ladies stone circle. It became both a tribute to that long-ago afternoon and to Davis's father, who sadly passed away in 2020 and never had the opportunity to hear these recordings. Perhaps that's why Rose Delta Rising feels so quietly profound. Not because it reaches for grand statements, but because it understands that the most enduring music often grows from small acts of memory, friendship and patience. This album itself has waited several years to find its moment. Life intervened, priorities shifted, and the recordings remained safely on the shelf. As Davis puts it, "you have to leave it sometimes, wait for the wind to pick up." The wind has finally returned. Released jointly by Cardinal Fuzz (UK) and Eiderdown Records (USA), Rose Delta Rising is a remarkable new chapter from an artist who continues to uncover fresh possibilities within the guitar, not through spectacle but through curiosity, generosity and an unwavering belief in the quiet power of a well-told melody. Sometimes the things we think we've lost simply need the right current to lift them back into the light.