The Book of Transfigurations (Unmastered Edition)

Dálava is a unique cross-genre project that refracts a body of Moravian (Czech) folk songs of the 19th and early 20th century through the lens of 21st century creative jazz, world and post-rock styles. This is their second record – the self-titled 2014 release (Sanasar Records) featured a superb trio of New York string players. Here, American vocalist Julia Ulehla and guitar wizard Aram Bajakian (Lou Reed, John Zorn), musical and life partners, are joined by a new band of improvisers from Vancouver, including cellist Peggy Lee and drummer Dylan van der Schyff. The songs are like fairy tales or compact, elliptical parables, and for each of them Dálava has crafted its own sound world. Inspired by her years in Italy as an actress and singer at the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, Julia animates their affecting melodies and archetypal storylines of love, death and the natural world through an improvisational yet ritual approach to performance. It’s a kind of musical séance; indeed, there is a generations-long personal bond at work, as the songs were collected in his home village by her great grandfather Vladimir Úlehla, a botanist and ethnomusicologist who viewed folk songs as living organisms. So they prove to be in Dálava’s bold, powerful and tender interpretations.

It’s all about process, as Aram relates: “…Julia will find the songs in her great-grandfather’s book that speak to her, and we’ll go through them, and I try and find a way to play something that keeps the living thing going in what she is singing. Sometimes it might be a texture or timbre. Other times it might be a chord progression, or something stylistic. For example, I heard a Reggaeton beat under the melody of “Dyž sem ja šel”…I heard that music every day for years in New York, and the rhythm is very much in me – and somehow I felt it would work with the melody, and low and behold, it did. Likewise with “Studena rosenka”, it’s such a delicate melody, and performing it live is so intimate, and I think the way I play guitar in it helps support that intimacy. It gives Julia a platform for us to trust each other in that way, while on stage…In “Vyletela” we knew we were hearing an overdriven Hofner [bass], like on all those great Beatles tracks. Colin [Cowan] was psyched to do that – and what he did with his instinct was amazing. But there was another track, “Na strážnickem rynku”, that when we recorded it initially with the full band, the feel wasn’t there…so we went back and decided to do it just as a quartet, with Peggy on cello and Tyson on accordion…I think it’s the most beautiful, heart-aching track on the album now.”

The extensive booklet includes texts with English translations and Julia’s commentary on each song.

This unmastered edition, available only at NativeDSD, restores the recording’s full dynamics, transparency and timbral purity.

Dálava
Julia Ulehla, vocals
Aram Bajakian, acoustic & electric guitar, drums, percussion
Peggy Lee, cello
Tyson Naylor, piano, accordion, Farfisa organ, Hammond A-100, Wurlitzer, Rhodes
Colin Cowan, double bass & electric bass
Dylan van der Schyff, drums & percussion