Greg Davis

Greg Davis’ music is the sound of the world—gently rolling water, drifting ice floes, crackling fire, falling leaves, humming wind—placed on a sonic microscope, and lovingly amplified. The Vermont-based electro-acoustic musician has, with Zen-like assurance, carved one of the most unique, unified, and open creative spaces in contemporary music. Working in a variety of disciplines, including live improvisation, sound processing, field recording, and guitar playing, Davis has pursued beatific sonic ends.  

Academically trained in both composition and jazz guitar, Davis’s drone-loving approach mixes the lessons of John Coltrane and John Cage. It is legitimately tranquil without being air-headed, formed from a rigorous and passionate cosmology of sound. (See also: Crystal Vibrations, Davis’ occasional blog of New Age obscurities.)  Based in Burlington since 2004, the catalogue for Davis’ own Autumn Records includes a 20-plus volume CD-R series of field recordings, a disc of microtonal composition based on prime numbers, recent orchestrations with psychedelic Vermont songwriter Chris Weisman, as well as releases by simpatico minds like songwriter Ruth Garbus.  

Davis’ solo albums have stretched from acoustic guitar explorations complete with Beach Boys and Incredible String Band covers (2004’s Curling Pond Woods) to all-sources-on-deck laptop jams (last year’s Midpoint). A prolific collaborator, Davis has traded gong-drones with Zach Wallace in Sun Circle, patched synths with Ben Vida, processed environments with Keith Fullerton Whitman, remixed the Grateful Dead, and toured with Akron/Family on electric guitar. Recently, he has spent time working with the Alaskan minimalist composer John Luther Adams. —Jesse Jarnow