King Gizzard drummer Michael Cavanagh details Sojourn, second solo album as CAVS

2 weeks ago 10

The record follows Cavanagh's 2021 solo debut CAVS and was developed initially as a sample-based beat tape before being reworked with a full ensemble of Melbourne-based musicians. Key collaborators on the album include Midlife drummer Jim Rindfleish, who co-arranged and produced, alongside a group of Melbourne-based musicians, including King Gizzard bandmate Joey Walker.

"Even in its demo form, the material had a distinctly visual quality," explains Rindfleish. "We kept returning to the image of waking up on an uncharted island, covered in dense jungles, waterfalls and glittering caves. After deciding to record it all with real instruments and players, we began to tap into an aspect of Cavs' musicality that has perhaps yet to fully surface as the drummer for Gizz. As drummers, we understood each other completely, hearing music in a very similar way. We wanted this record to feel like a journey through Cavs’ rhythmic imagination.”

Rindfleish frames the record as part of a broader tradition: “It is an ode to our favourite drummer/bandleaders throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s – Billy Cobham, Harvey Mason, Tony Williams, Tony Allen, and others – and is at its core a ‘groove’ concept album, best listened to in one continuous sitting.”