DELVING

DELVING is the solo project of ELDER's Nick DiSalvo. Nick is the leader and drummer of ELDER and with this his second solo record we get an hour of diverse music. Nick relates that the music here doesn't fit the ELDER narrative and so this became his outlet for that. His first record was composed and recorded during Covid, while album number two was created whenever he had some down time with his main band.

And while this album can get heavy, it's rare, the focus is more on electronics, piano, and atmosphere. No vocals, and while Nick is a multi-instrumentalist he did bring in the ELDER guitarist to help with the ambience on "Zodiac" along with Fabien Menou who also helps with that, but also adds rhodes and upright piano throughout. I like that album cover, dripping with colour. It's actually a four panel picture, you just can't look at it as one complete picture.

Electronics start the first three tracks along with the closer, track seven. I really enjoy that he did this, and sometimes these electronics come back in a song but not always. Drums are fairly active on that opener "Sentinel" along with the piano. There's a spacey calm at 5 minutes. "Omnipresence" opens with sequencers as drums come out of this with guitar and atmosphere. Organ after 3 minutes and it turns heavier 5 minutes in with guitar over top. "Chain Of Mind" has plenty of energy with synths, drums and more.

"New Meridian" is pretty cool with those dominant synths after 4 minutes as Nick turns up the heat here. Before this it had been fairly relaxed until it started to build. "Zodiac" is the longest piece at 13 1/2 minutes. It's guitar and piano leading early then drums join in. A nice determined sound here around 1 1/2 minutes as it gets heavy. A change at 3 minutes with piano and emotion for me. So good. We get spacey interludes and the final almost 4 minutes is soundscape music.

"The Ascetic" at 9 1/2 minutes features plenty of synths, piano and electronics. Some heaviness too. "Vanish With Grace" and I wonder who Grace is? The almost 10 minute closer opens with electronics with guitar joining in quickly. He's rocking pretty good by 5 minutes, piano too. A change after 6 minutes as we get percussion and atmosphere only. Keys join in as it's a jam to the end.

I'm sure ELDER fans were hoping for another ELDER album here, but I like the paths he took here with the piano, electronics and synths having big roles. A very solid 4 stars for this one.

Not solely due to the cover artwork here we have a colourful instrumental album. Spreading it's beauty around just like a waterspout fountain, the 'Hirschbrunnen' in this case. I'm quite sure pointing to the one situated in Berlin-Schöneberg. Probably already known for playing guitar with US/German heavy psych rock hybrid outfit named Elder, Nick DiSalvo is responsible for the recorded music ('... I'm an almost obsessive songwriter ...'). And this quasi single-handed, only with minor guitar support coming from Mike Risberg. Nick offers well-crafted compositions all the way through. The instrumentation includes standard rock, and diverse keyboard stuff on top. This sounds overly homogenous, as if, just like Elder, a complete crew of experienced musicians is playing.

But the sound is not very close to this band. Yep, generally speaking the keyboards respectively electronics are making it pretty different. Just to highlight Wait And Sea for example, rather dominated by piano, synthesizer, and melancholic Mellotron. And then you can notice that former Samsara Blues Experiment buddy Richard Behrens is involved here as one producer. Sometimes it occurs as if he's playing the bass instead. The title track comes with looping piano lines. Yet, initiated by Einstürzende Plattenbauten the closing extended Vast develops to a fountain on fire. Great album! Less heavy in comparisn to Elder, in return more kraut and art rock tinged. That means 'Hirschbrunnen' delivers the proggiest stuff ever recorded by Nick DiSalvo, at least what I'm aware of.