Timber Timbre heading to Liverpool in October
Canadian folksters Timber Timbre will grace the Leaf stage this October, Getintothis‘ Will Neville provides an insight.
Hot Dreams, their third album for Arts & Crafts and fifth in total, was released back in April. It was recently long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize, the Canuck equivalent of the Mercury Prize, alongside compatriots such as Arcade Fire, Cowboy Junkies and The Sadies. In fact, all of their last three albums have been either long- or short-listed for this award.
The new release widens their trademark sound, with singer Taylor Kirk’s woody (not wooden!) voice backed by his long-time colleague Simon Trottier’s simple but detailed backing. Mathieu Charbonneau and Olivier Fairfield are the other full-time members of the band who both add a variety of sounds to the affecting, cinematic palette. Guests include Colin Stetson on sax and Mika Posen’s strings.
The album was developed while Kirk was living in Laurel Canyon in 2013, with Trottier and Kirk sharing production and writing duties. The songs were arranged at the Banff Centre, an arts complex in the Canadian Rockies, with a range of vintage synths from Calgary’s National Music Centre helping to flesh out the sound. This tour is the band’s biggest to date, with dates including the 2,000-capacity Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London.
Their first disc for Arts & Crafts was the self-titled album in 2009 that included the hauntingly beautiful Lay Down In The Tall Grass, with Toronto’s Eye Weekly calling it “the spookiest disc of the year”, while Magic Arrow was featured in an episode of Breaking Bad. The next album Creep On Creepin’ On from 2011 was nominated for two JUNO Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Brits. Its recording locations included a converted church and it managed to break into the (very) lower reaches of the French, Swiss and Belgian charts.
Fans of old time country, Bill Callahan, Leonard Cohen or Tindersticks will find plenty to enjoy when Harvest Sun bring Timber Timbre to Leaf on October 16. Tickets £10.
