Beyond the creases now, well that’s what we said earlier this year when Kee Avil’s new album Spine came out on the rather respected Constellation label. A second full length album from the mind of Montréal singer-guitarist-producer Vicky Mettler or Kee Avil as she is know in terms of her very experimental music. Her Bandcamp declares that “Montréal producer Kee Avil combines guitar, voice, and electronic production to forge deconstructed songs informed by a distinctive amalgam of post-industrial, avant-pop, glitch, minimalist and experimental folk sensibilities”, that kind of does the job in a couple of lines, we can go with that in terms of Kee Avil’s fine art.
“This is good, a little more raw in terms of the sentiment this time maybe, kind of on a tightrope and you do feel she might not get to the end every time you listen even though you know she did last time you listened to the piece of music”, well that’s what we said of Spine earlier this year and yes it is a little more raw in terms of the sentiment this time maybe, kind of on a tightrope and you do feel she might not get to the end every time you listen even though you know she did last time. A little more formed without ever compromising, less is definitely more and she’s (very) quietly blowing it all up just to see. Rather a lot in common with the recent output of Gazelle Twin in terms of sparse space and obtuse texture, in terms of things almost hidden in the depths and the dancing alone in the dark and just the sound of it all. This is as unique, well as unique as anything Gazelle Twin does and really nothing like her, a touch of Whitehouse maybe? Nothing you can (or want to) easily nail down. Fragile, strong, delicate, beautiful. And as we said back there when we first heard the album back at the start of the year (the album came out in May). As we said at the time, one of the first exciting albums of year, it still sounds exciting…
“Harnessing a background in improvised music, Kee Avil’s self-titled EP (2018, Black Bough Records) introduced the project with a triptych of layered and fragmented vocal, segmented guitar, and electronic ooze, glued together by samples of screws dropped into crystal bowls”, that debut caught the ear of Montréal label Constellation and Kee Avil’s impressive debut full-length album Crease was released on the imprint in 2022, the album garnered widespread critical accolade from many (including us).
Constellation talk of something full of “twitchy and finely wrought avant-pop songs, meticulously assembled to resemble disassembly, Crease expanded Kee Avil’s sonic and structural palette with intensive detail, revealing a compelling new voice in experimental songcraft, where touchstones include PJ Harvey, Eartheater, Shygirl, Sophie and Lucretia Dalt; where Juana Molina collabs with Coil, or Grouper melds with Autechre”. We share this with you by way of illustrating it isn’t just us, there is something rather rewarding here.
Find a way, please help me, find a way, please help me. Spine isn’t an album you are going to want to run on repeat all day (although it has been on repeat here in the studio for hours and hours over several days now while paint is being thrown at canvas, this is great painting music!) and yes Kee Avil’s music is indeed both “adventurous and intimate, intellectually challenging and emotionally resonant”. Yes it is quite unnerving, am I little tense? A little more engaged than maybe is good for me? There’s some glorious detail, other rhythms, textures. Yes she is unique, she takes us through her songs in different ways than most do and yes that ending to Crock is very Whitehouse in the best of ways.
“We’re shaped by many versions of ourselves,” says Avil. “I was looking back at these versions of myself and what could have been, what didn’t end up being and what did end up being, and going back like that through time. Seeing the future, the past.”
“Spine was written in Kee Avil’s home studio after a lapse in writing while touring Crease and working on other projects. She is a well-known and respected member of the Montréal experimental scene, and formerly ran Concrete Sound Studio with Zach Scholes, who continues to work with her as a producer on Spine. Compared to the three years that went into making her debut, Spine emerged in a matter of months — a process that may also be a factor in its intensity and sharpness: “This record was much harder, like it was really discovering everything from scratch.” In her desire to not simply replicate or extend the sound of Crease, she felt she had to rip up the rule book, write in a different way, and pare back songs against her usual instincts”.
Sometimes, we need to deconstruct ourselves, put what we do back together in a slightly different way without loosing what it was in the first place, find ways or re-examining oursleves and what make it tick last time, get to the core of it all. Spine does that without ever feeling like she’s over-thought it. Spine gets you almost immediately, her self-examination pulls you in without really needing to hold tight, you are more than happy to stay there. Her voice goes everywhere, her guitar never touches on the obvious, her electronics crackle beautifully, her strings creak and have you looking over your shoulder for the source. it isn’t just the atmospheres, there’s more to it than that but that would have been enough, it isn;t jsut the voice or the words, but they would have been enough. this is a significant album, a rewarding piece of art, something different but being different isn’t enough, Spine is more than just different, it is different though and now that I’ve been listening to for a good few days,time to put it over there and go nowhere near it for a few weeks so that when the day comes to play it again everything can be discovered again, the best albums are the ones you don’t play that often, this is one of those albums…
And so, our traditional 13 questions were dispatched to Montréal. The idea is simple, an ongoing series of thirteen questions sent out to people who’s creativity we’re rather admiring and enjoying at the moment – artists, musicians, film makers, cake testers and who knows who, twelve of the questions generic, the thirteenth generic…
Thirteen questions answered by Kee Avil
1: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
I’m Kee Avil and I make music. I also like giving this music a visual shape.
2: WHERE ARE YOU TODAY? WHERE ARE YOU MOST DAYS?
I’m at home, in Montreal. I’m here most days.
3: WHO OR WHAT IS EXCITING YOU RIGHT NOW?
I’m about to start writing new music, there’s no big plan for what this will become…but the blank slate is always an exciting moment.
4: WHY DO YOU MAKE ART AND/OR MUSIC, BOTH THE SAME REALLY?
That’s a good question. Maybe a need to shape something out of nothing. I like having that center around which the rest of me revolves.
5: HOW DO YOU WORK?
I gather, all the time. It’s a big part of the work, while not actually working. Then I declutter. It takes a while for me to get started, to take that plunge. I need to feel ready, but I’m not sure what it takes to feel ready. It’s a big work in progress, I guess?
6: TELL US ABOUT THE ART/MUSIC YOU MOST IDENTIFY WITH?
Usually, something that surprises me.
7: WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK?
I like the humour in it. I’m always told that the music is so dark, strange, but it’s a very different experience for me. I like that it surprises me, still.
8: WHAT DO YOU DISLIKE ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK?
I’m not sure if this is dislike but there’s some songs that I would do differently if I could go back. I guess what I dislike is when I can hear that I didn’t trust myself in the moment.
9: WHAT HAS BEEN THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE SO FAR?
Do you ever really remember happiness?
10: WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY?
Me.
11: WHICH SUPERPOWER WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO HAVE AND WHY?
I’d like to control time, because it has a way of disappearing.
12: WHAT COULDN’T YOU DO WITHOUT?
My own space.
13: WHAT IS IT ABOUT UNNERVING TENSE MUSIC ANYWAY?
It’s all about perception.
And finally any future shows or events coming up that you wish us to tell people about?
Right now, I’m seeing where the rest of the year takes me. Invite me somewhere and I might go.
links: Linktree / Bandcamp / KeeAvil.com / Constellation
Previously…
Previous 13 Questions pieces…
THE ORGAN 