POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE SHORT-LISTED ARTIST, ADAM STURGEON (OF OMBIIGIZI), RETURNS WITH STATUS / NON-STATUS’ NEW LP, SURELY TRAVEL, OUT SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
WATCH / SHARE “MASHKIKI SUNSET” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MASHKIKI SUNSET” HERE
PRE-ORDER / PRE-SAVE SURELY TRAVEL VINYL / BANDCAMP
Photo Credit : Matthew Wiewel // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
What’s revealed when you archive the quiet moments during time spent on the road? For Adam Sturgeon, the result is a crystalline glimpse into the unseen — and gratifying — moments of personal renovation we rarely pay attention to; where a blown out tire incites calm rather than rage, and moments of frustration invite grace instead of judgement. This is the vantage of Surely Travel, the newest album by Status/Non-Status, the evolving musical project of the Anishinaabe artist and community worker, and a close-knit group of collaborators.
While Status / Non-Status’ previous album Warrior Down was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize and was shortlisted for the 2022 SOCAN Songwriter Prize for album track “Find A Home”, recently, Sturgeon joined Zoon’s Daniel Monkman to form OMBIIGIZI whose debut album, Sewn Together, was shortlisted for the 2022 Polaris Music Prize.
Exploring their expansive, sky-sweeping folk rock from a fresh angle, Status/Non-Status drive head-on into a natural complement to the earth-shaking sonic landscapes they’re known for. A loose concept album written as a travel log of animals in flight, the record brims with open air reflections, while gazing out of a blurry window and acknowledging what it can’t see clearly. Blending the melted psychedelic gauze of distorted Americana, with thundering flashes of post rock, Sturgeon implements softness generously. At the core, remembering that lyrics that break through universally sing with clarity about experiences that “chop at the knees.”
Today, Status / Non-Status are sharing the new single, “Mashkiki Sunset” which arrives complete with a video from director Sarah Houle (of Ghostkeeper). “Mashkiki is the Anishinaabe word for medicine and this song serves as a dedication to love, one of our 7 sacred teachings,” says Sturgeon.
“Mashkiki Sunset” is the first single from Surely Travel, “a record about being trapped in a van, watching life pass by through a foggy windshield,” says Sturgeon. “While often pulled far from home, I will picture myself a bird, flying home on a beautiful sunset atop the back of my dear old van.”
WATCH / SHARE “MASHKIKI SUNSET” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MASHKIKI SUNSET” HERE
MORE ABOUT SURELY TRAVEL
Recorded over 10 days at Deadpan Studios in Sudbury, the goal was to chisel things down down to the bone. Where past records built atmosphere out of heavy swaths of sound, overlaid with harmonies, the band opted for a single vocal take, a Wurlitzer, and ran a $100 classical guitar through an amp. Written in the company of others, whether from the back of a van, or with a baby on the other side of the door, Sturgeon wrote sections of the record in near silence — whispered lyrics and muted bass riffs that started as lullabies, only to be blown out later. It interlaces the album’s material composition with its central inspiration: the allure of touring from coast to coast, and the reality of over-indexing on time spent in an unreliable, stuffy van; the wrenching sacrifice of time away from loved ones, in favour of only seeing a gas station and vacant roads for hours on end.
Where the acclaimed, Polaris Music Prize Long Listed album Warrior Down (2019), and its celebrated follow-up the 1,2,3,4,500 Years EP (2020) required a mighty sonic landscape to fit its lofty reckonings of nationhood, trauma and familial memory, Surely Travel tightens its scope, but not its ambition. Instead, peering inward to examine the self within its surroundings, and to underscore identity and indigeneity from the smallest spaces or ordinary experiences. Conjuring the awe of sunshowers through the rearview mirror, Surely Travel intentionally doesn’t over-promise optimism, but rather celebrates the small wins of a human-sized approach to resilience and healing.
PRE-ORDER / PRE-SAVE SURELY TRAVEL VINYL / BANDCAMP
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SURELY TRAVEL TRACKLIST
01 Blown Tire
02 Has It Been So Long
03 Mashkiki Sunset
04 Mainly Crows
05 Bineshiinh06 Travelogue
07 When They Were
08 What Am I To Do
09 North Adelaide
10 Surely Travel