Mica Levi & Eliza Mccarthy - Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall LP

Label: Slip

Mica Levi returns to Slip with six piano pieces played by Eliza McCarthy on Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall. The album is a crepuscular suite riddled with Mica's inquisitive, conversational phrasing and smartly expanding upon their 7" track, "Riding Through Drinking Harpo Dine", a new recording of which also appears in this set. The culmination of three years of work between Mica and Eliza – winner of the 2013 British Contemporary Piano Competition – Slow Dark Green Murky Waterfall follows up their collaboration on the Oscar-nominated score for Pablo Larrain's Jackie (2016) with a finer-shaded, patient space for low-lit, smoky expression that's so intimate and personal it almost feels like eavesdropping a private recording. Ineffably bound by a sense of unreal poise, Eliza's interpretations are subtly, dynamically rendered in-the-mix by Mica to present the pieces as though in flux, like poignant, unresolved statements that occur in the flow of quiet, intent dialogue and linger in the air. It's testament to the pair's well-honed intuition that the results connote this feeling so naturally. And it's maybe our familiarity with Mica's work, from her earliest chopped 'n screwed orchestrations, to her Under The Skin (2014) score and her mutant pop pieces, that we keep expecting hers or Tirzah's voice to match her melodies with wordless vocals or harmonious limns throughout the six pieces. That's probably simply down to the fact that Mica writes with such a pop-wise appeal and soulful sensitivity that it prompts sub-vocalization in every listener; the hook of these instrumentals will be floating in one's head for days, weeks, or a lifetime after they're imbibed. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, artwork by Mica Levi and Eliza McCarthy. Edition of 500.