David Daniell and Douglas McCombs are solo musicians, each in his own right.
Daniell is a guitarist and electroacoustic composer. He’s one-third of San Agustin, founded the record label Antiopic, collaborated with avant-garde artists like Rhys Chatham, Agathe Max and Tony Buck. He also lives in Marshall, N.C. as of last year.
McCombs plays bass and guitar; he’s in Chicago-based Tortoise and instrumental project Brokeback. He’s worked with with the likes of Tom Ze, Azita Youseffi, Will Oldham, Yo La Tengo and Calexico.
Together, Daniell and McCombs and, well, David Daniell and Douglas McCombs. And they have a new album (Versions) out on Thrill Jockey. “Versions is the duo’s second album of adventurous guitar music, much of it improvised, drawing on jazz, folk, psychedelic and experimental music,” says press for the record.
More press about the album: “David Daniell and Douglas McCombs’s first collaborative LP, Sycamore, was assembled from seven hours of in-studio improvisations. Daniell and McCombs sifted through the material looking for their favorite moments, then combined, cross faded, mixed, and matched those moments into something that made sense to them as a long player.
“For their new release, the double LP Versions, they gave the same seven hours of material to noted recording engineer and producer Ken Brown, who was given free rein to assemble an LP of his choosing (subject to approval, of course).
“The results are fantastic. Brown has chosen to highlight moments in the music that the normally reserved Daniell and McCombs probably would not have chosen. There’s a wider dynamic range on Versions, from brutally raw to delicate to practically inaudible. The other interesting aspect is that Brown’s selections rarely cross over with the material on Sycamore—this is in no way a ‘remix,’ and that is exactly what Daniell and McCombs were hoping for.”
Daniell and McCombs plays Broadway’s on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
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