Garlands
Vulneraries Vol. 7 & Vulneraries Vol. 8
Tall Owl Audio
In his poignant liner notes for Volumes 7 and 8 of Vulneraries, the captivating, long-running series he records with his son Kenji, Hudson composer and multi-instrumentalist David Garland—a seminal avant-garde refugee of New York’s fabled 1980s downtown scene—defines vulneraries as “healing medicine.” Indeed, the idea for the series was formed in the wake of David’s wife Anne’s terminal cancer diagnosis, with the family entwined in a collective, collaborative sonic healing modality. This paternal-filial dialogue is embodied by the duo’s innovatively enmeshed instrumentation: an acoustic 12-string guitar and modular synthesizer in complete attunement, both complementary and contrapuntal, in flux. Conjuring the spirit of their lost matriarch, their interlocutory peregrinations might be summoning sentient arboreal voices. Vol. 8 is sparer, more austerely arranged. Vol. 7 is lusher, the duo’s guitar-synth articulations embellished by woodwinds—clarinet, bass clarinet, flute—and bass. The two men evoke a dizzying range of musical voices, from the earthbound elegiac to the ecstatic empyrean.
This article appears in June 2025.
