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I remember sitting on the grassy banks of Joe Brook, close to where my family used to live out on the Tantramar Marshes on the edge of Sackville, New Brunswick. It was a sunny, late spring day in 1999. Years before this when I was around 13 years old, I had scoured the entire area on my bicycle in search of sea-run brook trout. Many school days were sacrificed for this obsession. Because of this previous thorough surveillance, I was resolved there wouldn't be any trout at this spot in 1999. This time I had come to simply meditate and enjoy being next to the water.
That was when I heard a fish jump. I didn't move. I waited. I slowly got up, walked back to my parent’s place, found my old fishing rod, dug up some worms, came back and waited. When I heard the splash again I threw in my baited hook and instantly pulled out a nice trout with silvery steel bluish scales on it. The brook or speckled trout takes on these colours when it has lived in the sea. You won't find these colours in any guide issued by the province or Google image search. Just like the electronic red eyes of freshly caught prawns, or the iridescent shimmering pinks of Dorado, the mysterious luminescence disappears just after their last breath. Our meeting could only last a moment.
I really like Louis Roule's book Fishes -Their Journeys And Migrations. One idea in particular is how oceanic migratory species favor their own specific temperature and therefore an oxygen level. As these conditions move around in the ocean, like rivers in the sea, so too are the fish…
"This is where they make their home, where they live, and when their home moves they are carried along with it". -Louis Roule
In creating the music captured on this recording I have felt like these migratory fish. After the release of Mandala in 2004, the band traveled across Canada presenting our music to new audiences. After the performances I came up with ideas inspired by the most elevated moments we would get into at the concerts. I brought them in to rehearsals, where we further developed our sound as a band. In this way the compositions on Tantramar are a continuation of the music from Mandala.
In the summer of 2006 we performed one of our most spirited concerts with guest choir Effusion, led by vocalist Amelia McMahon at the Montreal Jazz Festival. This experience led me in another direction with the addition of voice. It was in the fall of 2006 when we performed in Paris, Belgium, and on a Canadian tour at the beginning of 2007 that I had fully introduced the new music of Tantramar into the band’s repertoire. We went into Paul Johnston’s studio a week after we got back to Montreal and recorded what I now present to you… |
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| | Hospital Loop 4:33 |  | | Aulochrome 2:19 | | | Syriana 8:55 | | | Chickadee's Other Song 6:48 | | | Anonymity 6:35 | | | Big Tiny 5:46 | | | Demasduit 7:26 | | | Flying Dream 7:12 | | | Boogie Gaudet 9:26 | | | Pick-me-up Truck 2:55 | |
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Joel Miller tenor & soprano saxophones, vocals, electronics
Bruno Lamarche tenor & baritone saxophones, clarinet, flute
Bill Mahar trumpet & cornet
Kenny Bibace electric & acoustic guitars
Fraser Hollins bass
Thom Gossage drums & percussion
guests
Amelia McMahon vocals (track 1,4,7,8)
Colin Burnett banjo (track 3,9)
Black-capped Chickadee (track 4) |
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