CAVS, photo by Sarah Findlay

Michael “CAVS” Cavanagh has shared “First Light,” the second single from his forthcoming solo album Sojourn. With his second independent offering, set to release on April 24 via p(doom records, the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard drummer explores lush instrumental oases deep-rooted in his eclectic percussion. The latest dispatch is accompanied by a cryptid-hunting music video directed by Jackson Devereux.

Following the jerking krautrock slink of lead single “Candiru,” “First Light” spirits the listener off to a vivid landscape overgrown with flashes of spiritual jazz, funk and fusion. Restless polyrhythms from CAVS’ congas, kit, shakers, and more intermingle under a canopy of echoing flute, while bold harp strums, propulsive guitar, and soft, syncopated horn calls chime in spontaneously.

“The first rays of a gentle sunrise touching a river’s glassy surface,” CAVS said of the song, “painting the water in soft hues of gold and emerald. Slowly, your eyes flutter open — not to the velvet darkness of the night before, but to an unfamiliar brilliance that seems almost too vivid to believe.”

On the music video, Devereux offered ,“Two persons and a yowie got a room at a halfway house motel for the night with three beds but only one was ripped apart, the others left in tack. This is real footage, Cavs is now a Cavsquatch and this proof that sasquatches are real. Sojourn is an odyssey of an album, and so we wanted to add another chapter to the story, building off the first music clip. In the video for ‘First Light,’ we follow Cavs transition to his new tree form, and his first stages of coping with this new reality. We found a literal halfway house and booked a room for him to tweak out.”

CAVS began work on Sojourn while recording his all-percussion self-titled 2021 debut, pushing himself to take on composition and arrangement duties, despite not playing pitched instruments. Collaborators who brought color to the endeavor include co-arranger Jim Rindfleish from Mildlife, King Gizzard bandmate Joey Walker on bass, and a Melbourne-based ensemble including Adam Halliwell (flute/guitar), Siwei Wong (harp), Archibald Pommelhorse (saxophone), Selene Messinis (keyboards) and Robbin Poppins (percussion).

Sojourn is available to pre-order and pre-save now. Watch the music video for “First Light” below, and read on for the full tracklist.

Sojourn – CAVS:
01. Victoria Amazonica
02. Emerald Nile
03. First Light
04. Silk Road
05. Boitatá
06. Death Bat
07. Paititi
08. Candiru
09. The Seeker
10. The Keeper