Jayve Montgomery: Breathing With Each Ear (Hour 3)

The world of Jayve Montgomery is one of complete tranquility, and in a modern world that moves so fast, his creations act as a bulwark. A contrast and a vital lesson in escapism, Montgomery’s sound chamber radiates what many would consider the quintessential out-of-body experience.

The avant-garde exponent adopts an approach that feeds into this idea, too. Residing in the elusive climes known as “Outer Music”, Tennessee, Montgomery aim is to reconcile the past with the future. It’s perhaps one of the more crystalising summations about an artist you’re likely to hear, and while sonically serene, Montgomery’s inspirations come from a place that is anything but.

Harnessed by the inspiration of enslaved WPA Slave Narrative interviewee Charley Williams, who spoke of the sounds of bells and horns used to summon him to the cotton fields, this sonic trauma is key to Montgomery’s oscillations between the past and present. A time travel through the kind of labyrinth sonics that not only echo the deep listening greats, but place Montgomery firmly alongside them.

Earlier this year, Montgomery released Florida. Seven songs at just over the 25-minute mark, for those new to his meticulous sonic tinkering, it was a taster for something greater. That greater? Breathing With Each Ear (Hour 3).

Three composition that amass the hour mark, Breathing With Each Ear (Hour 3) was a process of chiselling down hours and hours of recordings that consisted of bowed bells, alto and soprano saxophones, and kalimba. A marathon of ghostly sonics that, at times, are so quiet you can almost hear the blood running through your veins. Essentially, it’s an album at the vanguard of the mediative experience.

Per the notes in the lead-up to its releases, thematically Breathing With Each Ear (Hour 3) focuses on ascension from the sound at the bottom of a Transatlantic slave ship. Starting with Where There Is No Sun to Light the Way, Montgomery’s mission statement of reconciling the past with the future is underlined. The sound of bowed bells and the slow whirring of the alto and soprano saxophones creating the grainy snapshots that move freely between time. Not only does it frame the imagery of the said slave ship, but also provides the kind of subtle frequencies that feel like a malignant spirit drifting through the wreckage of an abandoned town.

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On Wash Over We, the bowed bells feature heavily, frantically hammering like an engine at break-neck speed before the composition transforms into a slow-motion glide through the ether. It’s spiritual jazz with the kind of ambience you’d associate with Kompakt.

Just over 27 minutes, not only is Sea Is a Sky When You Are Shelved Stowage the logical conclusion in a post-jazz world, it’s also the ultimate dreamscape. A sequence that drifts and completely pulls the listener out of their mind, this miasma of sound is one of those full-circle compositions that brings us back to where the album began.

Montgomery’s beautiful washes of sound add further weight to the stories that inspire Breathing With Each Ear (Hour 3) – a record where words don’t really do it justice. Just press play and drift off into Montgomery’s world in what is one of the deep listening experiences of the year.  

Breathing With Each Ear (Hour 3) is out now via Monastral. Purchase from Bandcamp.