To be honest I was quite overwhelmed looking at the range of releases around the world this week, and normally I'd have probably been tempted to head in the direction of a 12 minute post rock track, but a lovely song entitled Pictures in the Sand' from Canadian project Wide Arches won me over, there's a charming simplicity to it and I think the arrangements add an interesting dimension to the song too. It also led me to their album 'Farewell to the Lovely Things' which was released late last year.
The project was created by Toronto musician Jacob Gorzhaltsan, originally during lockdown "as a way to continue collaborating despite the difficult circumstances at the time". The project members recorded their contributions remotely from their own respective studios, bedrooms and kitchens and it was finally ready for release through Parper Records last year, with help from the Toronto Arts Council.,
I'm always fascinated by the wealth of interesting projects that it's possible to find through researching musicians involved in these collaborative efforts. So it seems that also involved in Wide Arches is the violinist / composer Molefe Mohamid-Mitchell, who I've spotted online in a project called the Doghouse Orchestra, Jared Higgins (not the deceased rapper) who plays guitar, composer and multi-instrumentalist Bret Higgins (Great Lake Swimmers / Beyond the Pale) on upright bass, Jazz musician Lowell Whitty (The Heavyweights Brass Band and many many others) on drums, the versatile jazz to grunge musician Kalyna Rakel with contemporary jazz vocalist Meagan Luchko on backup vocals, and of course Jacob Gorzhaltsan on lead vocals. Quite a combination.
The whole album is worth a listen, tracks such as 'Butterfly' have a quirky melodic feel that trip along nicely,'Roadkill Cafe' has a darkness to the lyrics that I particularly enjoy - "our life is merely slow decay". But it was 'Pictures in the Sand' that I first heard, the vocals offer a soft melody, and there's a feeling that they're not looking to over complicate the instrumentation, every bass note resonates, the violin offers a gorgeous texture and the backing vocals delicately compliment the lead vocals.
This is definitely an album I'll continue to get to know over the next few weeks.