Constellation Records
Album Review: Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead” : intense, probing and cathartic contemporary rock.
Let’s start with some facts. Godspeed You! Black Emperor are a seminal alt rock, orchestral collective formed 1994 in Montreal. People who write about contemporary music see their early noughties trilogy (F♯ A♯ ∞, Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven and Yanqui U.X.O.) as definitive long form, instrumental statements. If you are reading …
Album Review: WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN –’No More Apocalypse Father’: A probing, poetic and profound alt-rock record of today.
While much contemporary music of today seems required to focus on the ‘me’ some artists continue to probe wider into the things that ‘we’ do collectively, the injustices, the inhumanities, the inequalities. Since co-founding the seminal Godspeed You! Black Emperor and the agit post rock assembly Thee Silver Mount Zion, Efrim Manuel Menuck has been …
Track / Video: WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN –GY!BE/Big|Brave/Ada affiliates announce tumultuous debut album.
A post rock summit, confluence or collab, some might even toss in the supergroup label if they were feeling flippant. Whatever you want to call the artistic meeting of minds that is WE ARE WINTER’S BLUE AND RADIANT CHILDREN (or WAWBARC between friends) it offers up the enticing prospect of new collective music from Mat …
Album Review: Kee Avil -‘Spine’: experimental pop with a thrilling, raw urgency from the Montreal artist.
Two years ago Montreal producer Kee Avil’s debut for Constellation ‘Crease’ turned heads with its leftfield pop mosaicism, an intricate patterning of vocal, sound and instrumental shapes set with experimental glue but framed in song form. Now at last we have the follow up ‘Spine’, again via Constellation, and a chance to engage with Avil’s …
Album Review: ‘FYEAR’ – a phenomenal, poetic statement from the Montreal post-jazz ensemble (aka. FYEAR)
Music and poetry, poetry and music, the Montreal convened collective FYEAR show how potent this combination can be on this self-titled debut, out now via Constellation. Led by poet/novelist Kaie Kellough and composer/saxophonist Jason Sharp, FYEAR the ensemble has been evolving through a project-based approach for several years now culminating with the ambitious, multi-movement composition …
Track/ Video : Avant pop experimentalist Kee Avil previews gripping new album ‘Spine’ with the tense and tactile ‘Felt’.
Two years ago Montreal producer Kee Avil’s debut for Constellation ‘Crease’ caused quite a rumpus with its avant-pop mosaicism, all intricate vocal, sound and instrument patterns set within an experimental glue and deceptive song structure. Bandcamp made ‘Crease’ album of the day and year-end lister, Mojo pinned on four-star acclaim and The Quietus were rightly …
Track/Video: A statement of scale and integrity – Montreal ensemble FYEAR preview the dramatic ‘Pt.1 Trajectory’ from upcoming debut album.
So the presser says “FYEAR interrogates our present and future post-capitalist polycrisis“. Any creative project aiming to probe into that vortex would require scale, focus, finesse and integrity, which are exactly the qualities that this Montreal convened collective possess. Led by composer/ saxophonist Jason Sharp and poet/novelist Kaie Kellough, FYEAR have been sculpting their resonant …
Track/Video : Singer/composer Erika Angell previews the intense ‘One’ from her bold new album ‘The Obsession With Her Voice’.
Wow this could be cathartic and courageous. As the catalyst to fire her debut solo album Swedish born now Montreal based vocalist, composer and producer Erika Angell reaches deep into her childhood memories and the first time she sang, aged four. ‘The Obsession With Her Voice’ will be released through Constellation on 8th March and …
Track/Video: Electronic collagists Off World announce final album ‘3’ with ‘Impulse Controller’, a down-tempo improv essential.
Despite being a left-field national treasure in the Canadian contemporary scene, guitarist and producer Sandro Perri goes about things with a steady grace. An active musician for over two decades now, his nudge to wider acknowledgement began with that first solo release on Constellation in 2011, ‘Impossible Spaces’. Other acclaimed releases followed with 2018’s ‘Another …
Album Review: Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden : a powerful and poetic jazz saga.
Jazz composer, saxophonist and visual-artist Matana Roberts powerful and profound Coin Coin album series has reached its fifth chapter with the release of harrowingly resonant ‘In the Garden’ via Montreal’s Constellation Records. The album continues Roberts’ resolute commitment to a twelve-part song cycle which began in 2011 with ‘Coin Coin Chapter One: Gens de couleur …