22nd December 2020: #WhirlwindInFocus: Josephine Davies shares the inspirations behind ‘How Can We Wake?’ – watch the new studio clip of ‘Mudita: joy’

Saxophonist Josephine Davies is one of the standout voices on the UK’s creative music scene. A saxophonist and composer, she recently released a third album, How Can We Wake?, with her ensemble Satori. The trio, featuring Davies on saxophone, James Maddren on drums and Dave Whitford on bass, are quietly establishing themselves as “one of the most exciting outfits” in British jazz (All About Jazz) as they look to explore free playing informed by spiritual concepts. There’s a calm freedom to their music, but you also feel a sense of progression through Satori, In The Corner of Clouds and now How Can We Wake? as the group becomes more attuned to the sensibilities of the each member.

Josephine spoke to #WhirlwindInFocus about lockdown, current projects and the all-important concepts that inform her music’s construction.

Interview by Hugh Morris (hugh@whirlwindrecordings.com)

WWR: Hi Josephine, thanks for speaking to #WhirlwindInFocus. First off, how’s lockdown 2.0 treating you?

JD: Yikes, I’m reluctant to start off with a political rant, but this lockdown is completely different from the first one. It just feels like a cowardly governmental half-move that fails to understand the reality of most people, makes little practical sense, and decimates aspects of our culture deemed ‘inessential’ by politicians whose existence appears to be the definition of philistinism. But that’s enough of that for now.

It’s actually treating me fine – I was one of 10 composers to be awarded the Jazz South Radar commission which has been a hugely rewarding project throughout the autumn. I’m also getting into home recording (albeit more reluctantly than most, being a massive technophobe), and am working on a new project with Phil Robson (another Whirlwind Artist), vocalist Christine Tobin and bassist Ben Somers. I’m also expanding my compositional skills by learning about orchestration, which is at times overwhelming but incredibly exciting and a great excuse to listen exclusively to volatile Russians (Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, you get the drill). Oh yes, and I’m supposed to be writing a load of new stuff for my jazz orchestra to record next year. I shouldn’t say this, but there are moments when I appreciate lockdown just to get enough hours in the day!

WWR: You previously worked as a psychotherapist – how much does that practice inform your music? Personally speaking, has being in lockdown altered your approach to balance and meditation at all – I imagine there might be a lot more opportunity for it now!

JD: It’s really all the same process for me in terms of finding flow – there’s a lovely Sanskrit word ‘Ekatanata’ which means extending continuously without interruption of thought, a motion which happens organically and almost inevitably, like the decisive yet unfazed movement of water. These are the best moments in music, in therapy, meditation, relationships, in life itself – when the mind lets go of the need to control and direct, understand, explain, manipulate, in essence do what the mind is so beautifully yet destructively crafted towards –  these are the moments when extraordinary things happen.

It was primarily my training as an existential psychotherapist that enabled me to understand this and brought me back to music after I had become disillusioned with it. With reference to the current time and pandemic, none of this actually changes. The world has seemed increasingly unbalanced to me for a long time, and I’ve tried to find ways of living with that and engaging with people and pursuits that offer solace and give something back.

WWR: For people new to your work as a trio, what does ‘Satori’ mean, and what sorts of musical and spiritual ideas do you like to explore?

JD: I found this beautiful Japanese word ‘Satori’ in a book by Stephen Nachmanovitch called ‘Free Play’, which is about how we can truly engage with spontaneity and flow in music. It means a moment of spaciousness away from the clutter and distraction of conscious thought that for me encapsulates where I feel the truest moments of expression lie. It also links with an idea I’m currently exploring about time and polarity – what does it mean that we live forwards but understand backwards? How are we able to experience those tiny pinpoints of unity and eternity when our consciousness is ultimately polarized and time-bound? And how can I purposely harness these moments musically? Perhaps the point is not to attempt to harness something intangible, but to practice being open to the possibility of those moments, to remain present to what is, rather than exist in a state of expectation and therefore inevitable disappointment.

WWR: With regards to ‘How Can We Wake?’, how free is it? How do you go about constructing a sound world – do you find jumping off points or common reference points to build around?

JD: This album is definitely a further step for us in terms of letting go things like structure, time, harmonic centres etc. Interestingly, the one track we did on the live recording that didn’t make in onto the album was one with a more specific structure and chord sequence, and whilst listening back to the gig I realized it simply didn’t fit – although I like the piece, there is a sense that we’re playing something written rather than creating something new. Yes, the other pieces have reference points, concrete melodies, hooks, key centres, but they are all to be taken with a musical pinch of salt – no one has to stick to anything solid or pre-empted. I love this way of constructing a sound world – it means we’re just listening and playing, or not playing, which of course is a big part of the album too. There are so many different permutations of sound with only three people, and that attention to dynamics and contrast is something James and Dave are so great at.

WWR: One of the things I like about ‘How Can We Wake?’ is the strong sense of journey over the course of the album. Could you explain how the album takes shape?

JD: Thanks, that’s nice to hear. The shape of the album is simultaneously about music and about the emotional and psychological states that the music depicts. But I don’t really like the word psychology, or indeed the word emotion – they are both quite separatist and fail to truly encapsulate the experiences they attempt to define. Perhaps that is why a picture paints a thousand words and a piece of music can be a journey through so many un-languaged landscapes. As someone once said (possibly Frank Zappa, or Steve Martin, maybe both, or neither), “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. I love this quote despite also very much enjoying the challenge of doing exactly that. Anyway, where were we?

I might say that the pieces on the album are inspired by different shapes that I take in myself, and therefore they work together because they are all part of the whole spiky crunchy soft weird wondrous messy beautiful human existence that we are all engaged in. I was going to say that ultimately the track order was a musical decision, but of course musicality cannot be separated from the emotional journey I want to take the audience on, so I think to summarize this somewhat lengthy answer – no, I’m afraid I can’t explain how the album takes shape!

WWR: Where’s next for yourself and the trio? Have you managed to play together at all?

JD: GAH! NO! Okay, so I am incredibly fortunate in many ways – I live with my boyfriend, a musician, and we have played heaps of music together during lockdown, and I’m also a composer so very used to working in isolation. But my goodness I miss playing live with James and Dave. It does make me appreciate what we do together though – there’s a sound that we’ve gradually developed and such a sense of freedom and joy in the communication we’ve built up. I was just posting something on Instagram and the app reminded me what I was doing this time last year (HOW IS THAT A GOOD IDEA RIGHT NOW??!) which was a Satori gig in Berlin, and I had such an enormous rush of sadness at not being able to tour, gig, hang out in European cities drinking strong beer and trying out my beginner German. Really it’s live music that I miss the most, but it’s more than that – there is a growing abyss within our culture that I find terrifying because Artists are often the people whose perspective is broad and fearless, who ‘out’ the naked emperor, who take us to task for living lives of complacency, who encourage creative, independent thought away from ignorance or dogma.

I don’t know what’s next for myself, I don’t know that any musician can answer that question right now, so perhaps a good end note is to return to the album title, which is a line from a poem by my mother, Gwendoline Coates; ‘How can we wake?’ seems to be a timely challenge, a question that needs to be answered not once but repeatedly, courageously, and honestly, wherever that may lead each of us.

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Satori’s album How Can We Wake? is available over on our site, on 12″ LP 180g Limited Edition Vinyl, CD & DL: here.

Follow Josephine’s work with Jazz South on their website: here.