It’s a gift and a curse to be living in an age of seamless virtual musical collaboration. I suppose that statement could apply to the broad range of guest verses we likely otherwise wouldn’t have gotten over the past five years or so, but the benefit of being able to record a song with just about anyone from just about anywhere overlooks the magic that tends to take place when physical space is shared. Case in point, there’s an undeniable energy to Chicago musicians Resavoir (a.k.a. trumpeter/composer Will Miller) and Matt Gold’s new joint LP Horizon that likely wouldn’t have popped as much had they co-written and recorded it from different cities. Yet it became evident that there was room for improvement on the album cut “Diversey Beach” when they were finally able to meet up with that song’s featured artist, Mei Semones.
Today we’re sharing a video of the three collaborators’ first-ever performance of the track, filmed when Semones and her band (violinist Claudius Agrippa and viola player Noah Leong) stopped through Miller and Gold’s hometown. Naturally meeting up on Lake Michigan (there is no official “Diversey Beach,” to my knowledge—the east-west street ends at Diversey Harbor), the collaborators found that the gentle sounds of their environment enriched the proceedings. “We captured this performance quickly, breezily,” Gold shares, “and we love how the sound of the waves and wind are woven into the texture of the song here. After writing ‘Diversey Beach’ during the dead of winter, dreaming of a beautiful June afternoon, it was an incredible full-circle moment to play it just as we imagined it.”
Check out the performance below, and stream Horizon here. You can also revisit our recent “Breaking” feature with Semones here.
