(2020) Dana Gavanski - Wind Songs (EP)


Review:
When you listen to Wind Songs by Dana Gavanski the first thing you realize is that this woman has a hell of a record collection. You’d have to in order to be aware of King Crimson, Chic (via Robert Wyatt), Tim Hardin, traditional Macedonian folk music and Judee Sill. That’s a list of artists that you just have to respect. And she garners extra points for doing a lot of these songs live (although that’s something you won’t see any time soon). Covering King Crimson is something of a bold choice, especially a track that dates back even further than the 1969 debut. Moving I Talk to the Wind clearly into the folk camp with the plucked acoustic guitar opening, she plays it fairly straight, vocally recalling Judy Dyble, who recently passed away. There’s also some lovely sax work on the track. Not too many people cover Robert Wyatt, even less cover Robert Wyatt covering Chic with At Last I Am Free. “I only discovered this brilliant song within the last year. Written by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers and originally sung by Chic, Robert Wyatt does a superb cover of it that just blows my mind, with his bizarre but amazing vocals and arrangement: that soft and gentle mellotron flute that pushes the song along coupled with his shrill wizardly voice.”  Her arrangement highlights the keyboard aspects, more to the piano side of things. Still, it all works perfectly. Going more directly into folk territory, Tim Hardin’s Never Too Far seems a perfect choice for the Serbian-Canadian singer. In places the song recalls the 60s sound with some slightly honking sax work. In other places the song’s bah-bah-bah vocals seem to mesh effortlessly with the period vibe. Contrasting that is Jano Mome, a song of the Balkans that’s done a cappella with gorgeous harmony vocals. Finally she takes on Judee Sill’s Kiss, turning the piece into something of a waltz for psychedelic keyboards. It’s transcendent, reimagining the original framework without abandoning it. Eventually the keyboard fade out leaving Dana harmonizing with herself as the song fades away. Coming out hot on the heels of her first album of original material, Yesterday Is Gone, Dana Gavanski shows that besides having incredible taste she knows a thing or two about covers. Wind Songs doesn’t simply recreate old arrangements, it celebrates classic material making it live for new generations.





Tracklist:
01 - I Talk to the Wind
02 - At Last I Am Free
03 - Never Too Far
04 - Jano Mome
05 - The Kiss


Media Report:
Genre: indie-folk
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits