Accept When brings together two idiosyncratic American free-improvisers – alto sax and synth player-vocalist Caroline Davis, an advocate for social justice in the realms of gender and the movement for carceral justice and supports artistic endeavors and the message of prison industrial complex abolition, and guitarist-vocalist Wendy Eisenberg, who plays in Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet and a musician who does not recognize any musical limitations.

The album was created between 2022 and 2023 and relies on the deep intimacy of these good friends – musically and otherwise, and became the basis for their activity and growth as songwriters and improvisers. Deerhoof’s drummer Greg Saunier joined the duo on a few pieces. The album was recorded at Figure 8 in Brooklyn in February 2023.

Accept When is a collection of left-off-center and mostly dream-like short songs and open-ended free improvisations that imagine a synchronized nucleus in the lives of Davis and Eisenberg. At times, the close, dance-like interplay of Davis and Eisenberg and their rebellion against any genre conventions brings to mind the sorely missed singer-songwriter duo of guitarist Mary Halvorson and violist Jessica Pavone. These songs and improvisations, with their restless and generous doses of eccentric assaults and timbral searches, remind us all of the preciousness of our existence, and as these fine songwriters put it «help us all accept these miracles and metaphors, in our lifeboats».

Eyal Hareuveni

Caroline Davis (alto saxophone, voice, synthesizers), Wendy Eisenberg (guitar, voice), Greg Saunier (drums)