I've never heard of this band before, but this is their second album, and the Canadian duo consists of Bruce Cawdron from Godspeed You Black Emperor and Beckie Foon from A Silver Mt. Zion, both of whom are most certainly more known for their work with those projects. But this outing sees the two creating nearly 40 minutes of mildly experimental musical soundscapes using drums, cello, piano, marimba, glockenspiel, clevises, cowbells, and rototom shells - with guests sporadically contributing guitar and bass, not to mention additional percussion, metallophone, sleigh bells, and hubcaps!? The tracks range from the succinct "Mados" and its surprisingly active cello orchestrations to the nearly 17-minute epic "Histories Repeating as One Thousand Hearts Mend" - which blends everything from sinister ambient undercurrents and obscure musical textures to tribal percussive elements. The material is definitely musical in tone, but rather than feeling like openly melodic arrangements or concrete song structures, the compositions are more likely to slowly ebb and flow along with subtly musical ambience and pulsing, droning atmospheres that rise up from sparse minimalism to quaint yet intricate layers of more involved musicianship that still manages to remain fairly abstract. The disc opens with the 7+ minute "Quelques Mots Pleins D'ombre", which is a strong indicator of things to come in its improvisational sounding progression that adds and removes layers as it touches upon more concrete musical aspects while refusing to sit still or repeat. This track also most effectively uses percussion, as something about the drums really adds some emphasis and power without overtaking the other instrumentation. Nicely done. Cascading piano adds brightness and emotion to "Why She Swallows Bullets and Stones", which somehow creates more of a moving feeling that stands above much of the other work. On the other hand, "Ebb Tide, Spring Tide, Neap Tide, Flood" is less structured and revolves around reverberated chiming sounds layered together for nearly four minutes, which is the only area of the disc that wears thin and feels a little less developed or constructive within the big picture. Tribal percussion reappears in the distance of "Le Rire de L'ange" behind lots of eerily twisting strings, making for another repetitious track, but one that's more hypnotically efficient. I have no quarrels with the recording, which is clear and warm, with all the natural depth you'd expect. Everything about the character of the sound quality is perfectly befitting of the tone of the release. The same could be said for the digipack packaging, which keeps it simple yet elegant with a setup reminiscent of a worn old book, with the disc in a matte black sleeve in the right side and a gorgeous looking matte postcard tucked into the left panel. Better still is that the band name and album title are pressed into the front cover, which looks quite nice and adds even more of an artistic touch. Musically the band's output isn't entirely my thing and does have minuscule weaknesses in tow, but it's clear that a lot of effort is placed into piecing these songs together and creating compositions that actually progress from start to finish and develop across differing dynamic shifts. There's certainly a distinct vision here, there's simply no argument against that, so the CD is a curious little experience in the end. Something that fans of the contributors' other projects should lend an ear to, for sure.
[Madrona]
Running time - 39:55, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Quelques Mots Pleins D'ombre, Histories Repeating as One Thousand Hearts Mend, Mados]
Madrona Records - http://www.madronarecords.com
