ECHOES OF… THE ANDREW MORRISON (THE JERRY CANS) LED IQALUIT COLLECTIVE NEW ALBUM, LAST DAYS, OUT VIA AAKULUK MUSIC TODAY
WATCH / SHARE “HOUSE IS HOME VOL. II” FT. TERRY UYARAK HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “HOUSE IS HOME VOL. I” FT. SARA PAGE, KRISTINA KOROPECKI HERE
BUY / STREAM LAST DAYS HERE
Photo Credit : Gisle Henriet // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, Nunavut musician and Aakuluk Music label owner Andrew Morrison, the one-time leader of JUNO Award-nominated Arctic folk-rock group the Jerry Cans, is releasing his beautiful and often mournful piano record, Last Days. The record is comprised of six instrumentals with each of the same works also recorded with Inuktitut-language poetry by rock legend James Ungalaq (Northern Haze) and JUNO Award-nominated singer-songwriter Terry Uyarak.
"House Is Home” is the final focus track of the album. “It is a return to the starting point of the whole cycle of this experience,” explains Morrison. “The whole album represents a trigger/glimmer of earth-shattering loss in my life, but this release process has been about coming to terms with that loss. I wish for this album to create space for listeners to bring light and warmth to their darkest times."
WATCH / SHARE “HOUSE IS HOME VOL. II” FT. TERRY UYARAK HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “HOUSE IS HOME VOL. I” FT. SARA PAGE, KRISTINA KOROPECKI HERE
MORE ABOUT LAST DAYS
“It is a grief album, but a life album,” says Andrew. “There's lots about home. I think that's something that we struggle with, in this era of our lives, when we lose people, parents, but also lose people that we look up to artistically.
Last Days was largely inspired by Andrew’s late mother, who was comforted by her son’s piano instrumentals in her final months, but also his need to break out of his comfort zone and create a piece of art that can be taken to the great classical concert halls of the world.
“I wanted to do something that ignores the rest of the commercialized appetites in the music industry and honour non-lyrical music. It’s a world I don’t know too much about, but I think that we’re told too quickly what songs are about, but with the Inuktitut poetry — because most people won’t understand it — the tone of the voice, I hope, conveys that. This is getting back to something that I feel is missing in art, which is our connection to what we’re feeling and expressing.”
LISTEN / SHARE “COLOURS I” FT. SARA PAGE, KRISTINA KOROPECKI HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “COLOURS II” FT. TERRY UYARAK HERE
During the pandemic, when Andrew’s mother was in care, every morning he played her snippets of the piano songs because he knew she enjoyed them. “I recorded them on my phone just as voice notes,” he says.
Some of those intros are on the final recording, and some he rerecorded after she passed away. “It was just time to diarize and remember the last moments of my mother passing away,” Andrew says.
Self-produced in Inuktitut and Montreal, the instrumentals “House Is Home Vol. I”, “79th Ave Vol. I”, “The News Vol. I, The News 2 Vol. I”, “Colours I”, and “Sooth Your Soul Vol. I”, also feature Sara Page (Barr Brothers) on harp and Kristina Koropecki on cello.
“The News” poems were written and recited by James Ungalaq. “Two of his band members had passed away this year so he was also in a devastated space,” says Andrew. “He had a bunch of poems that he had written. It’s him finding his place again, similar to me, being from a band that had a certain identity to something very different. I feel like for both of us, it's been mining our souls a little bit.”
“It is a great honour to have both James and Terry contribute poetry to my album; they write absolutely beautiful words,” says Andrew. “We wanted to provide both Inuktitut and English guides to their poems with the hope that more people can understand life in Nunavut.”
LISTEN / SHARE “THE NEWS VOL. I” FEAT. SARA PAGE, KRISTINA KOROPECKI HERE
LISTEN / SHARE “THE NEWS VOL. II” FT. qiyuapik HERE
BUY / STREAM LAST DAYS HERE
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LAST DAYS TRACKLIST
01 Sooth Your Soul Vol. I feat. Sara Page, Kristina Koropecki
02 Sooth Your Soul Vol. II feat. qiyuapik
03 The News, Vol. I feat. Sara Page, Kristina Koropecki
04 The News, Vol. II feat. qiyuapik
05 The News 2 Vol. I feat. Sara Page, Kristina Koropecki
06 The News 2 Vol. II feat. qiyuapik
07 79th Ave Vol. I feat. Sara Page, Kristina Koropecki
08 79th Ave Vol. II feat. qiyuapik
09 Colours I (Instrumental) feat. Sara Page, Kristina Koropecki
10 Colours II feat. Terry Uyarak
11 House Is Home Vol. I feat. Sara Page, Kristina Koropecki
12 House Is Home Vol. II feat. Terry Uyarak