Urban Duet by David Craven & Jon S Williams

Year 2020. Keywords for future history books will read virus, pandemic, lock-downs... If you don't want to obsess by that, your only alternative is to revisit your own identity. Searching for identity can lead to losing it. Not for our friends at City of Cool. They boldly shed their old familiar band name and decided to simply put their own birth names as a fresh signature under their new work, underwriting their music with more integrity and more intention than ever before.

Two individuals, one behind drums (David Craven) and one behind guitars (Jon S Williams) were meeting in parks and public places, like some early Christians or Soviet anarchists, plotting the new album like a conspiracy against the expected and against usual. They firmly decided. Their new music will be different, reinvented but with the strongest possible integrity. Belief that what the duet is working on will be the most honest music possible, barren of all the unnecessary gloss. So, they went on and each of the musicians contributed to the overall sound equally.

Keywords rarely seen in our present day. Consensus and deep understanding, David and Jon concluded, are the keys.

After ditching their band name, setting the compass to the new concept, they decided on another bold step. Get rid of the lyrics. As Keith Richards would say "Talk is Cheap". Words are superfluous. Duet will say everything through the guitar chords and drum beats. It was a good decision.

Changes Jon and David coined benefit from added abstraction and the immersive nature of instrumental music. Communication through instruments strengthened understanding and enriched the friendship between the two. To add another dimension to this mix Dave started using a vintage drum set which surely contributed to their connections to the past musical influences.

On the first listen, the duet's music fits quite well within the latest Australian wave of psychedelic music. However, deep inside, both Dave and Jon are students of jazz. Complexity of the new music definitely pays homage to both styles of music. The guitar sound is, as Jon points out, "moving around the headphones" (neighbors were complaining!). Pedals became an extension of his own "inner personal state". Beyond the musical influences, the duet also cites structural philosophy being the highest influence to their new sound.

The new album is abstract, but not without consciousness. The two created their new work with determination and clear ideas where things should be going.

The Instrumental adventure of David and Jon started chronologically with "Wominjeka". The first piece they laid out for the new concept is titled using a word that comes from the language of the indigenous Wurundjeri people from the area of Melbourne where the band resides. Connection with traditional and new sets the tone for the rest of the album.

Most songs have a unique and exciting aspect. On "Atmosphere", it's David's drum improvisation, "Bike" is a fresh take on traditional lead guitar rock, "Heart Full" is a nod to Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive". "Reunion" features finger-picking and possesses dream-like qualities. "Festival" is arguably the most communicative song, this time referring to communication with listeners, not just internally between the band members.

Even when returning to their early written material as in "Surrender" and "Eyes Cloud", which dates back to the 1990s, the approach is novel and barely recognizable. On "Vintage", the band topically and stylistically is referring to "Wominjeka", letting us know where it all started for them. Finally, "Widespace" closes the circle when it comes to the topic of new communication and rediscovered identity. Original song lyrics that were around for many years were dropped and "Widespace" transformed into something entirely new.

And so is the sound of Urban Duet - the title of this brilliant new album by David Craven and Jon S Williams. Urban and fresh, but with nods to tradition. Abstract and deep, but also conscious. Communicative internally and externally. Made to last.

Stanislav Zabic 11/11/22

David Craven (Drum Set) and Jon S Williams (Electric Guitar) are an instrumental duo from Naarm, Wurundjeri Country (Melbourne, Australia). Minimalist and textured, evoking a sense of journey and transition.