about the record

John Davis is a sound artist and filmmaker based in the Bay Area. Active since the mid-2000s, he has released recordings on labels such as Root Strata and Digitalis, as well as on his own Bimodal Press imprint. Landlines is released on Students of Decay and can be heard as a kind of spiritual successor to Davis’ earlier work on the label.

Across his work, Davis cultivates a pastoral sensibility rooted in the forests and coasts of Northern California, moving with the delicate, erratic cadence of dust motes rendered visible in bright sunlight. Opening track “Verichrome” articulates this sound world with particular clarity, stitching together Music Mouse-like formant synthesis and meditative vocal sampling with an exquisite minimalist suite for prepared piano.

Of these recordings, Davis writes, “In a general sense the conceit here is nostalgia, a desire to reflect on the importance of connection, to ourselves and to the world around us. The title is, of course, a euphemism for the telephone, but I am also considering landscape, horizons, and infrastructure, as well as the invisible lines that connect us, the threads that bind us, and the communities that form us.”