The duo Zach/Davies met in 2001 when Derek Bailey suggested that Zach hook up with Davies when he was visiting London with his trio TRI-DIM. They have since played together in many groups including; No Spaghetti Edition, Muta (with Alessandra Rombola) and in a trio with Evan Parker.
“Both Davies and Zach have had their feet planted in the ever-fertile soil of the European free music scene for some time now and over the years they’ve both delivered some beautiful brain-scrambling documents of speed-of-thought assemblage, especially when they’ve been paired with arch-thinker Derek Bailey, but this 2002 recording has to got to be the most beautifully inspired work from either of their fingers to date. Rhodri Davies is one of the world’s few improvising harpists but his approach is a world away from the overdriven drama of Zeena Parkins. Here he triggers slow-burning lines of drone that are as woozy and deep as a blanket of warm snow. Drummer Zach holds back on any kind of rhythmic strategy, instead focussing on triggering buzzes, clicks and tones from various wind-up/electronic gadgets, bowls and percussive devices and together the two generate the kind of seamless cloud-void that you’d more immediately associate with the lost-in space style of early Taj Mahal Travellers. Over on the flip things get a little tauter, with Davies launching the kind of pinched notes that bring to mind Kazuo Imai’s nylon string guitar work and Zach responds with some windmill drum patterns. This is a beauty and highly recommended. Comes on sick psychedelic vinyl and is limited.” volcanic tongue of ieirll
rhodri davies and ingar zach: ieirll (lp qbico 31, 2002)
muta : yesterday night you were sleeping at my place (sofa records)