For the latest songs, albums, videos, playlists, and artist news, bite into our music blog Crossfade.
Savath & Savalas
- Avg user rating:
Out of 2 votes - Similar Artists: Slicker, Balún, Juana Molina, Mondi, Peat Moss, Koushik, Sybersound, Richard Devine, José González, T. Raumschmiere
Out of 2 votes
- Location: New York, United States
- Genre: Electronic & Dance » Electronica
Editor's review
Everyone's got an alter-ego, some more pronounced than others. For the man best-known for his glitch-hop work as Prefuse 73, Guillermo Scott Herren's Savath and Savalas alias is a channel for his softer side. Most of the production centers around an exploration of traditional instruments merged with organic-feeling, ultralush electronic production. It's beautiful, really.
Biography
Inherent to the tradition of his past and present influences, Guillermo Scott Herren has delivered Golden Pollen, an album that explores a wealth of history and exceeds all expectation. The songs featured on this album, some of the first Herren has written with only himself as the primary vocalist, are indicative of a lush, organic texture that reflect mainly on the very personal and transparent nature of their arrangements. Recorded over a period of isolation, these songs enabled Herren to let go of inhibitions and reflect on ideas of love, beauty, and sentiment, becoming common themes for the album itself. Golden Pollen represents a period of change and self-searching that occur to many, but very few are capable of translating these experiences with such poignancy.
Savath & Savalas began in 1998 as an alternative outlet for Scott Herren to follow his true passion: exploring different instruments and arrangements separately from the synthetic programming and complex compositions of his previous work. Recently signed to Anti, Savath & Savalas has found a home at a label that fully supports Herren's direction and places him in the company of many notable musicians of our time (Tom Waits, Daniel Lanois, Nick Cave, etc). At times Savath & Savalas recorded as a duo with Eva Puyuelo, but Golden Pollen is more of a self-described "solo based record" by Herren.
Golden Pollen not only features multi-instrumental virtuoso Scott Herren on all tracks and vocals, but a plethora of highly regarded musicians in their own right. Recorded at Soma Studios in Chicago and his own studio in New York, Golden Pollen features Jose Gonzalez (vocals on "Descartes"), Mia Doi Todd ("Intro"), Danny Bensi of Tarantula A.D. (cello), Tyondai Braxton (vocals), Laurence Pike from Triosk on drums, and Joshua Abrams on bass. Herren provides the rest, playing many different guitars, Venezuelan and Puerto Rican cuatros, the Cuban tres, flamenco guitars, various Latin percussion, vibraphone, electric bass, concertina, Moog synthesizer, and harmonium throughout the album's 16 songs.
"The fanboys may gravitate towards Prefuse 73, but Guillermo Scott Herren's acoustical alter ego Savath & Savalas attracts revolutionaries." - XLR8R
