TORONTO / LOS ANGELES BAND REVEAL NEW VIDEO FOR ALBUM SINGLE “HOW NOW”
NEW ALBUM, RETURNING CURRENT, OUT TODAY VIA OUTSIDE MUSIC
WATCH AND SHARE “HOW NOW” HERE VIA EXCLAIM!
WATCH SNOWBLINK PERFORM ON CBC q HERE
TOUR DATES BEGIN THIS WEEK
“possibly the best thing they have ever released. It’s hot. It’s not yet quite dark.”
- The Globe And Mail
“Subversive, sinister and sly, Daniela Gesundheit's voice is a full moon, “luminous and bright, bringing light and clarity to lyrics cloaked in shadows” - CBC Music
“a blissful ride … On Returning Current, Snowblink return to their lush ways and
beg you to dive in” - Exclaim!
“sees Snowblink straining its airy melodies through an '80s-esque, Europop sieve of sound. The result? A bigger, dance-ier record that swirls like waves” - The Coast
“Gesundheit's pure voice floats and soars effortlessly over a soundscape featuring subtle and imaginative touches. …mesmerizing” - FYI Music
PHOTO CREDIT : JOEL GIBB
Today, Toronto / Los Angeles duo Snowblink celebrate the release of their latest album, Returning Current, by sharing the new video for album single “How Now” courtesy of Exclaim!. Directed by Scott Cudmore, Snowblink says of the video, “we feel new feelings and we immediately want to know, will this last? Do we get to keep it? The answer is, of course, always (eventually) no, but that tension of trying to hold on, that inevitable dissolution and breakdown of even the deepest bonds... Scott captured it beautifully in this video.”
WATCH AND SHARE “HOW NOW” HERE VIA EXCLAIM!
WATCH SNOWBLINK PERFORM ON CBC q HERE
Out today via Outside Music, Snowblink’s newest collection of songs, Returning Current, is an unflinching study of human relationships – to self, to other, and to Other, and to the threat or actuality of losing those unrepeatable prizes. The duo of Daniela Gesundheit and Dan Goldman began the recording process with a text based ‘mood board’ developed by Gesundheit to portray the sensations she wished to evoke in the production of the album. The musicians, producers, and engineers were faced with the task of sonically approximating themes of santa fe / arizona / palm springs / calypso disco / lots of space with bursts or ripples of sound.
Practically, this ambition meant that the band approached each song uniquely – here a full band live off the floor in a winter cabin, there a painstaking half-year-long process of revision, here a drum sample from years ago mixed with dozens of layers of analog synths and vocals. In sculpting the singular sound of Returning Current, no process was out of bounds – the band made themselves equally at home with a bevy of acoustic instruments, analog processes, or sample-based in-the-box production choices.
Joining Snowblink in studio for the creation of Returning Current was co-producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas), and a cast of acclaimed musicians including Leslie Feist, Owen Pallett, Barbara Gruska (Fiona Apple, Jenny Lewis, Ray LaMontagne), Johnny Spence (Tegan and Sara), Thom Gill, Ariel Engle (AroarA), Steven Foster (Doldrums), Felicity Williams (Bahamas), Philipe Melanson (Rufus Wainwright), Mika Posen (Timber Timbre), and many others.
What results is “mastery at its liquidiest” claimed Feist in a personal letter to the band. A collection of songs that find the speaker reporting, in the stark, James Blake-esque ballad “Second Sight”, that “the sky was kneeling on my back to pray,” or elucidating the slipperiness of desire, as in Returning Current. These are private songs, domestic songs, songs to be absorbed over time – unhurried, biological time, the passage of which helps us to survive ourselves.
Snowblink is sensual, not sterile, elegantly imperfect, Wabi Sabi. Gesundheit’s empathic, mesmeric lyrics, when coupled with Goldman’s patient and narcotic arranging and production style, establish a genuine intimacy without telling us what to feel.
Looking to the emotional intelligence of heavyweights like Nina Simone, PJ Harvey, or Violeta Parra, or poets Anne Carson and Fanny Howe, while adhering to the optimistic and playful presentation of ’80’s French pop duo Elie & Jacno, Snowblink manages a courageous strangeness, otherness, an optimal mismatch.
RETURNING CURRENT TRACKLIST
dayside
How Now
Exotic Bird
Cyclone
Feel Like a Man
Returning Current
nightside
Foothills
Second Sight
Cobalt Clear
Torn to Light
Wild Here
SNOWBLINK TOUR DATES
9/9 - The Capital, Fredericton
9/10 - Buoy Gallery, Portsmouth
9/11 - Trans Pico, Brooklyn
9/15 - Casa Del Popolo, Montreal
9/16 - Pressed, Ottawa
9/17 - Sandbanks Festival, Picton
9/18 - Park Theatre, Winnipeg
9/19 - Bassment, Saskatoon
9/21 - Broken City, Calgary
9/22 - The Flying Steam Shovel, Rossland
9/23 - China Cloud, Vancouver
9/26 - Hungry Brain, Chicago
9/27 - Rock Island, Illinois, TBD
10/01 - Quixotic Sounds (in-store), Toronto
10/5 - Starlight, Waterloo
10/7 - The Garnett, Peterborough
10/8 - Burdock, Toronto
10/9 - Burdock, Toronto