GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS SHARE ANOTHER TRACK FROM UPCOMING LIVE LP

LISTEN AND SHARE “I AM PART OF A LARGE FAMILY” HERE
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GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS ARE RELEASING THEIR 2007 PERFORMANCE AT TORONTO’S CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER ON BANDCAMP ON MAY 7 AND ON VINYL / DIGITAL PLATFORMS ON MAY 14, 2021 ON (WEEWERK)

PRE-ORDER LIVE AT THE REDEEMER 2007 HERE

Great Lake Swimmers Live At Church Of The Redeemer 2007 - Photo : Frank Yang // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Great Lake Swimmers are sharing the live version of “I Am Part Of A Large Family” from their upcoming release Live At The Redeemer 2007. Set for release as a vinyl double LP and on digital platforms via (weewerk), the concert capped off the band’s Canadian spring tour of 2007, just days before the group continued on to embark on a full European tour to support the newly released album Ongiara.

“This live version of ‘I Am Part Of A Large Family’ has one of my favourite Great Lake Swimmers live band lineups,” says songwriter Tony Dekker. “Bob Egan on dobro, Owen Pallett on violin, and Basia Bulat on backing vocals, alongside the core four-piece band at the time. There is an energy in the performance which is absolutely intrinsic to that place and time. The live version rivals the album version in my mind, and really flourishes once the band gets going, transcending the sum of its parts.”

LISTEN AND SHARE “I AM PART OF A LARGE FAMILY” HERE

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MORE ON LIVE AT THE REDEEMER 2007

Live At The Redeemer 2007 was originally recorded for CBC Radio broadcast by producer and engineer Ron Skinner, with live sound mixed by Andy Magoffin, who also re-mixed and mastered the recording for this release. The album is notable not only for the grand acoustics of the church, but for the raw first impressions of songs that would become fan favourites, as well as notable guest appearances by Basia Bulat (backing vocals), Owen Pallett (violin), and Bob Egan (pedal steel) in addition to the band’s core lineup. The live set is comprised of songs from the first three Great Lake Swimmers albums; Self-titled (2003), Bodies And Minds (2005), and Ongiara (2007).

“As I write this, we are very near to the year mark of a pandemic that has put much of the world into holding patterns of lockdown, isolation, and closures,” says Dekker. “It has been devastating on many levels, but there are silver linings; for me, it’s been a chance to press pause and reflect, with part of that being a look back, and taking stock. That has led to, in this down time, the opportunity to go through the archives of Great Lake Swimmers live recordings from over the years, and a few things were found that I think are worth sharing.

LISTEN AND SHARE “YOUR ROCKY SPINE” LIVE AT THE REDEEMER HERE

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What you hear on this record is the official release show for our album Ongiara, recorded for radio broadcast by the CBC on April 14, 2007. It was the first time that the new songs were performed in front of a hometown, Toronto audience, and it capped off a tour of Ontario, Quebec, and Western Canada. Days later, we were en route to Europe for a month of tightly scheduled tour dates there. And following that, a whirlwind month-long tour of the U.S. brought us up to a string of summer festival dates. It was a busy year, and looking back on it now, I’m not sure how we survived it. It was the first time that it felt like the music was starting to reach a wider audience.

For this particular show, we were lucky to have local friends and collaborators help expand our four-piece band at the time to a seven-piece, which includes Owen Pallett on violin, Bob Egan on pedal steel, and Basia Bulat guesting on backing vocals. At one point I’m also on stage alone with my guitar. 

Spaces have always been important to me, from where the albums are recorded to the rooms in which the songs are shared. Playing and singing in interesting acoustic places, like old halls, and churches, especially, draws out performances that I think have a special quality that you can’t quite put your finger on, but can feel are there; notes swirling together in a big open room, bathed in natural reverberation. As a singer, I feel that the performance is transformed by the space, as if it were another instrument, or a member of the band. The space completes the song, in a way, and I think there is evidence of that here.”

On the recording of the performance, engineer Ron Skinner notes: “I’ve been recording live music for the CBC for more than 25 years. Over the course of my career I’ve had the great honour of recording hundreds of beautiful live performances. 

It is no secret that Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker likes beautiful acoustic settings. And Toronto’s Church of the Redeemer is definitely that. But more than that this location seems like the perfect spot for a Great Lake Swimmers concert. A beautiful, serene sanctuary right in the heart of a loud and busy city. I think you can hear that juxtaposition in the performances on this recording.

My stress levels are pretty high on the day of a live recording. The combination of the logistics, the long day and the adrenaline rush of recording live often makes it hard for me to enjoy the music. I generally get to experience the joy of the recording a few days later when listening back alone in the mixing studio. Now, hearing this recording again almost 14 years later, I remember it was a great day.”

CONCERT REVIEWS FOR GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS AT THE CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER, APRIL 14 2007

“I’ve seen a number of musical performances in a few of the churches on Bloor St, but this was my first at this particular house of worship and I think it sounded far and away the best...everything sounded stunning. Everything. The performances were note-perfect, the mix perfectly balanced and the church acoustics everything you’d hope they’d be. It would be possible to go on at length (even moreso) about how good it sounded, so let’s just say it sounded better than you could possibly imagine.” – Frank Yang, Chrome Waves

“It was my first time seeing a show in Church of The Redeemer which is a quaint, old church situated in downtown Toronto, conveniently off the subway line....Through roughly an hour and a quarter's set of material Tony Dekker performed his set through a variety of configurations. There were awesome full-band performances like set-opener "Your Rocky Spine", "I Am Part Of A Large Family" and "Moving Pictures Silent Films" (a strikingly beautiful song already made even better by Basia Bulat's lovely vocal touch). It was good news to hear from Tony that the evening was being recorded by CBC Radio, presumably for radio broadcast but hopefully also for a live album release if we could be so lucky.” – Michael Ligon, For The Records

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LIVE AT THE REDEEMER 2007 TRACKLIST
01 Your Rocky Spine
02 Backstage With The Modern Dancers
03 Various Stages
04 Bodies And Minds
05 Put There By The Land
06 I Am Part Of A Large Family
07 Changing Colours
08 Moving Pictures Silent Films
09 There Is A Light
10 Let’s Trade Skins
11 I Will Never See The Sun
12 Passenger Song
13 Where In The World Are You
14 Song For The Angels
15 I Became Awake
16 Imaginary Bars

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DANA SIPOS REVEALS NEW ALBUM, THE ASTRAL PLANE, SHARES FIRST SINGLE / VIDEO

DANA SIPOS NEW SANDRO PERRI PRODUCED LP, THE ASTRAL PLANE, OUT JUNE 25, 2021 VIA ROARING GIRL RECORDS

WATCH AND SHARE “LIGHT AROUND THE BODY” HERE

BUY / STREAM “LIGHT AROUND THE BODY” HERE

PRE-ORDER THE ASTRAL PLANE HERE

Photo Credit : Chris Dufour // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Dana Sipos (Dan-ah Sea-pose) opens her new album, The Astral Plane, with an invitation for the listener: to revel in the quiet, sometimes off-putting nature of the spaces in between. ‘Don’t let the light in, don’t let the moon on, I just want to sit with the darkness for a little bit / The day has fallen down.’ Winding down the opening track, Sipos meditates on the temporary, often painful nature of our earthly experience: ‘We’re two broken bones, I guess, camped out in borrowed bodies just waiting to set.’

This invitation arrives after a full minute of undulating piano and shimmering guitar, guiding the listener into an emotionally and sonically rich landscape. What follows is a deeply personal exploration, tracing the imprints of memory that form and take hold over the many lifetimes of a person, a family, the environment. Running parallel to this investigation of family histories and legacies, there are strong undercurrents of collective climate grief, the shifting faces of loss and inherited trauma echoing the ecological crises of our time.

Many albums offer a snapshot in time, or a glimpse behind the curtain into a fleeting certain moment in the writer’s story. On The Astral Plane, Sipos instead invites the listener beneath the surface, diving into complex personal histories and relationships and their ongoing reverberations, from the past and into the present and future.

“Light Around The Body”, the first single from the album, is “a cacophony of reflections after a three month solo tour to Australia and New Zealand in the winter of 2019,” says Sipos. “It's infused with the vibrancy and sensory overload of being in such a far out place where some things were literally upside down. But it also touches on some painful elements - I was in Christchurch when the bombings occured in the mosque, which of course was greatly mourned by all of New Zealand and the world. The aftermath of the 2010 earthquake was still very palpable and evident there. So ‘Light Around The Body’ is primarily about infusing oneself with the strange and beautiful and sometimes painful and strives to make sense of the senseless.”

WATCH AND SHARE “LIGHT AROUND THE BODY” HERE

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For The Astral Plane, Sipos once again teaming up with experimental producer Sandro Perri and reunited with her accomplished studio band for the project, consisting of Thomas Hammerton (keys, piano, organ), Mark McIntyre (bass), Nick Zubeck (guitar), and Blake Howard (percussion), with guest appearances from Lydia Persaud (vocals) and Michael Davidson (vibraphone). To bring the new songs to life, the crew decamped to a large converted 1860s stone carriage house, The House of Miracles, in Cambridge, Ontario, in the summer of 2020. The result is an impeccably curated collection of sounds, anchored by Sipos’ haunting vocals and evocative lyrics.

This LP is the album Sipos has been preparing to write her whole life. Her grandparents survived the Holocaust in their youth and later, with two young children in tow (including Dana’s mother), fled Hungary during the Communist Revolution of 1956. “My grandparents had miraculous lives,” Sipos says. “As child survivors, they both lost so much. During their escape from Hungary they were thrown in jail, sent back, escaped again; my mother was drugged to stay quiet on the journey and almost didn’t survive. They arrived in Canada with $5 sown into a jacket pocket and didn’t speak a word of English. I feel very lucky that they shared these stories and experiences with us.” From her grandfather, she also inherited a love for singing, Jewish jokes and Yiddish humour: “I grew up with a love of stories and storytelling across the board, the unfathomably dark and painful. And despite — or perhaps because of — the hardships, the ability to turn that darkness into humour.” Sipos became a careful observer and close listener at the kitchen table on her grandparents’ farm, where they settled in southern Ontario. 

Throughout the album, Dana unearths the trauma of her grandparents' early lives, which took a noticeable toll on her family in later years. Sipos has long infused a quality of thoughtful observation into her songwriting, but there’s a new urgency that drives many of these songs. “Skinny Legs” is a goodbye letter to her beloved grandmother, asking questions that cannot be posed in real time. “Greenbelt” specifically explores her upbringing on the farm and the ways, both subtle and overt, that trauma impacted the family over time. And on “Hoodoo”, Sipos explores how this intergenerational legacy mirrors the profoundly damaged earth that generations to come will inherit, highlighting the lasting and cyclical nature of trauma.

In writing these songs, Sipos is holding memories, often painful ones, up to the light and asking: What is the contour of these memories in your body? How do they shape you? How are these inherited memories and experiences absorbed? What does their aftermath look and feel like? 

Described as “slightly strange and completely mesmerising” (Gold Flake Paint UK), Sipos’ work combines enigmatic lyrics and bold production choices. Hailed as a “luminous and compelling work” by Exclaim!, her 2018 release Trick Of The Light was nominated for English Songwriter of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, shortlisted for the Ontario Arts Council Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award and the Kerrville Folk Festival “New Folk” songwriter competition. The release was supported by tours and festival dates throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Trick Of The Light received acclaim from CBC, The Bluegrass Situation, Penguin Eggs, Folk Roots Radio (UK), and No Depression. Trick Of The Light followed a 2015 album released on Nashville-based Muddy Roots Records and was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in the Pushing The Boundaries category, celebrating innovation in creating new folk sounds, extensive international touring and caught the eye of outfits like No Depression who lauded Sipos as “a consummate singer and songwriter with a wholly unique sound.”

The Astral Plane arrives June 25th via JUNO Award nominated musician Miranda Mulholland's label, Roaring Girl Records.

PRE-ORDER THE ASTRAL PLANE HERE

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THE ASTRAL PLANE TRACKLIST
01 Light In Moon On
02 Swallow’s Call
03 A Crude Likeness
04 Light Around The Body
05 Skinny Legs
06 Daniel
07 Greenbelt
08 Hoodoo
09 Breathing Barrel

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RICH AUCOIN REVEALS UNITED STATES DELUXE LP, SHARES DOUBLE A REMIX OF “WALLS”

UNITED STATES DELUXE LP, INCLUDES TWO BONUS REMIX TRACKS AND A SECOND DISC WITH INSTRUMENTALS OF ALL ALBUM TRACKS, OUT APRIL 23, 2021 VIA HAVEN SOUNDS

LISTEN AND SHARE “WALLS” (DOUBLE A REMIX) HERE

PRE-SAVE UNITED STATES DELUXE LP HERE

BUY / STREAM UNITED STATES HERE

Photo Credit: Riley Smith // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Today, Rich Aucoin announces the upcoming release of the Deluxe Version of his acclaimed album, United States. The deluxe version includes two new remixes of album tracks from Double A and Steve Bays, and bonus disc featuring instrumental versions of all the album tracks. “I'm really excited to include the album with these remixes as well as releasing all the instrumentals for the first time,” says Aucoin. “Howie Beck's (Charlotte Day Wilson/River Tiber/Feist) mix really shines in the instrumentals too. It was great to work with someone on back to back records as we've got a great work flow established. Since I wrote this record on my bicycle to demo versions of these instrumentals while cycling across the United States, people can now hear what I heard over and over again as I figured out the lyrical content while observing my surroundings in 2018.”

PRE-SAVE UNITED STATES DELUXE LP HERE

Aucoin is also sharing the first remix from the deluxe album. “Walls”, remixed by the legendary Double A arrives today on all digital platforms. “After touring the world as a prolific Drum n Bass artist, Double A attended King's College with me where we met and where he convinced me to change up my usual sit to the side of the stage style performance while accompanying a projection of the films I write my music to to get actually into the audience and play a more dance style set,” says Aucoin. “Playing Famous Players with Small Town DJs really was my first foray into what the show eventually became as its mainstay (while seated shows still occasionally occur as well). I was excited when Double A expressed interest to remix ‘Walls’ upon its release and give it his classic Drum n Bass treatment.”

LISTEN AND SHARE “WALLS” (DOUBLE A REMIX) HERE

Rich is also releasing his first NFT with an unreleased track composed for a friend's student film at AFI. The track is a single copy. The instrumentation is: Vibraphone, Hammond Organ, Piano, Electric Bass, Drums, Percussion. Recorded and performed by Rich in 2006. Find out more HERE.

MORE ABOUT UNITED STATES

Aucoin wrote United States, observing America from the ground level, while cycling across it for Mental Health America and the Canadian Mental Health Association. While taking this Robert Frank approach, Aucoin composed a song for each of the 12 states he pedalled through. The record is as much about the current socio-political climate of America as it is about states of consciousness; as much fuelled by the burgeoning American protest movement or Hedges’ social commentary as it is fuelled by McKenna/Pollan world of psychedelics and meditation apps.

Rich Aucoin has never been short on ambitions or concepts. From his first EP, Personal Publication—on which he played over two dozen instruments and wrote it to sync to How the Grinch Stole Christmas—to We’re All Dying to Live’s 500 performers, to his death mediation Release, the pop anthemist has always dug deep and gone big. But this is the first time he’s written a record from the grounds of a crumbling empire. In the spring of 2018, Aucoin set off from Los Angeles on one of his customarily challenging (and eco-friendly) tours. Final stop: New York City. Vehicle: Bicycle.

He travelled the perimeter of the United States, down the west coast, across the south, and up the eastern seaboard. He saw a country, two years into a dictatorship, divided and hurting. A pair of wheels and his own two feet took him through landscapes varied in their construction and grandeur, from the boarded-up storefronts of Route 66 to the fountain formation of Red Rocks. Tiny towns and major cities. Thriving and fading. 

Aucoin has been long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize twice. His music video for “Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E.” won the Prism Prize. Aucoin has built a reputation as one of the best live shows in Canada according to CBC Radio3. His albums all sync to old movies like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon with The Wizard of Oz. He has performed dozens of festivals including Osheaga, The Great Escape, Les Eurockéennes, Berlin Music Festival, Art Basel Miami, Luminato Art Festival, Iceland Airwaves, SXSW, and Pop Montreal.

WATCH AND SHARE “KAYFABE” HERE
WATCH AND SHARE “WALLS” HERE
WATCH AND SHARE “RESET” HERE
WATCH AND SHARE “HOW IT BREAKS” HERE

BUY / STREAM UNITED STATES HERE

PRAISE FOR RICH AUCOIN

“On United States, beauty and sadness, hope and pain are shown not to be mutually exclusive — the album demonstrates a jolting acknowledgement of reality combined with an electrifying hope of what could be” Exclaim! 

“peppered with Beach Boy harmonies, ’70s soul grooves and dance beats that move the body while his lyrical pleas move the mind. ...powerful, motivational” The Halifax Chronicle Herald

"Aucoin is Ennio Morricone armed with a Korg and a decade-spanning set of samples. He’s Steven Spielberg with reverbed vocals. And you can listen along to his imageless movie, United States, laying out a montage in your mind’s eye" The Coast

"Aucoin’s upbeat pop sound remains as universal as ever, and even though on the surface the lyrics and themes on this fourth LP are tied together by something specific, the world is always watching" - CULT MTL

“A bold talent, his grasp of sonics is interlinked with a desire to express something, to challenge both himself and those around him.” - Clash Magazine

"’The Middle’ is an extremely earnest, charming-as-hell reflection on the self at the midpoint of life and death." - Noisey

"This is an anthemic collection of head nodding and foot tapping electro-pop" - PopMatters 

"Easily one of the most mesmerizing tracks we've heard so far this year." - CBC Music (2018)

“Aucoin, a characteristically ambitious artist” - Paste Mag 

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