David Harrington Group: Become Alive

Richard Gehr on October 5, 2016

If the David Harrington Group’s dark instrumental album Become Alive suggests anything concrete, then it’s the sheer difficulty of becoming alive. Nicolas Jaar’s former Darkside collaborator plots a trajectory somewhere between electric Miles Davis and the cosmic loneliness of Pink Floyd, transforming studio improvisations and loose compositions into slowly unfolding atmospheres through the liberal application of post-production effects. Timbres and tempos gradually coalesce throughout the course of the album; Harrington doesn’t play a real guitar solo until two-thirds of the way in. But it all pays off in closer “All I Can Do,” a pretty epic Sergio Leone-esque composition full of optimistic charm.

Artist: David Harrington Group
Album: Become Alive
Label: Other People