Does An Alpine Cde-9845 Have An Aux

Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels

"The room and the places where we have become like another member record of the band or another instrument. It's a bit magical. It adds ano thermal layer to the song. "
( Tony Dekker, 2009 )

The Canadian Great Lake Swimmers have always had a penchant for unusual recording locations. Their first album they recorded in an abandoned grain silo, and later served under other churches and community halls as a studio replacement. Each specific room acoustics acts in fact as an additional tool that enhances the warm, gentle voice of singer Tony Dekker is a natural reverb, giving it the fragile, sparingly orchestrated songs a unique atmosphere. It is this sound that makes the special charm of the band from Toronto, and sets them apart from others, stylistically similar bands.

For the recording of her now fourth album "Lost Channels" it has the Great Lake Swimmers devious in the Thousand Islands , an island region in the St. Lawrence River, on the border between Canada and the USA - an inspiration which one marks the album perfectly. Was recorded at this time in another old theater and a lock, Singer Castle on an island with the mysterious sounding name Dark Iceland. The choice of shooting locations with special acoustics is therefore remained stylistically has changed in direct comparison to previous works a lot. Such is the fragility and the more minimalist approach of the early works - then almost a solo project of Tony Dekker, accompanied by a few individual musicians - Given way to the lavish orchestration of a complete band. In addition to the once dominant acoustic guitars are now heard playing banjo, mandolin, cello, violin, too isolated and electric guitars and Hammond organs, even the drums are more present than on previous albums. In addition, in particular the songs show the first half of the album on a relatively brisk pace, though measured by the dreamy, spherical slowness which was known from the Great Lake Swimmers before. Also quoted a more optimistic mood seems to have become important: the sometimes abysmal melancholy is less dominant than in the early songs, sounds, but in some places through. Conspicuous Inspiration is the landscape, which is mainly in the multiple recurring motif of the river expressed. At the same time, there are also urban moments, such as "Concrete Heart" , a song that was originally commissioned for an art project about architecture in Toronto.

Despite the musical changes make it the Great Lake Swimmers, the characteristic atmosphere for them to keep well in the faster, fuller orchestrated pieces, without drifting into folk-rock clichés. Your greatest moments, the band has, however, still in the quiet, subdued songs, as they tend to dominate the second half of the plate. Here, The strengths of the band, they develop their own spatial sound and the dreamy intensity of the songs best. All in all, the Canadians succeeded once again a beautiful drive, for which the term used by some critics Ambient Folk longer be accurate.