Toronto composer Christopher Mayo is releasing an album of three compositions today, featuring grab-you-by-the-ears performances by guitarist Andrew Noseworthy and harpist Grace Scheele. Walk the Darkness Down will absolutely rattle you.
To fully appreciate the album’s title piece, start with Townes Van Zandt’s 1969 track “Lungs,” which serves as a reference point. Mayo’s piece combines 10 open-string guitars, detuned to mimic Van Zandt’s minor tuning imperfections.
“A Sick, Sly Age” is even better. Scheele’s prepared harp runs roughshod over an extended glissando. Noseworthy drags us back and forth across his guitar with tortured patience, producing a kind of next-level drone.
The album wraps with its most gentle effort, “It Could Be You Or You Or You” for solo harp. Again though, Scheele pushes her instrument beyond the confines of minimalism. For all its quiet beauty, there’s a lot going on.
The three works were composed between 2019 and 2023.
More new music
Aidan Baker + rsn – Bottom Layers of A Surface: Baker’s guitar can be overwhelming, no matter the setting. That’s not a knock — his library is packed with deeply emotional recordings and he’s a force of nature live. On this collab with electronic artist rsn, Baker turns the volume down to great effect. Love this, for its subtle complexity.
Dead Can Dance – Our Day Will Come: Missed this one last week. The Anglo-Irish collective has pulled its music from streaming platforms and set up shop on Bandcamp. This new single — featuring a vintage Brendan Perry vocal — is the first in a series planned on a monthly schedule this year. Fifty per cent of proceeds go to Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Zosha Warpeha – I grow accustomed to the dark: Two long-form beauties by the Brooklyn-based composer-performer and Hardanger fiddler. The work combines her study of traditional Norwegian music with a tense, urbane modernism.
The Moderns 