Withing a few short years, Toronto-based musician & composer Brady Kendall has cultivated his Alaskan Tapes project from a fledgling collection of singles & EPs exploring the liminal spaces between various compositional forms and ambient atmospheres into one that produces beautifully realized complete albums that draw well-deserved praise from listeners and fellow musicians alike. His latest, entitled Views From Sixteen Stories, is an especially fine one even by the high standards he has established for himself. It is one of those records that just seems to hit the sweet spot right from the off.
The album features performances Owen Vaga (aka Voga) on piano, Jay Austin on french horn, and Raphael Weinroth-Browne on cello, and their instruments are deployed with utmost discretion to add just the right shade or shift in mood to each piece. The melodic progressions and textural elements remain in perfect balance even as the songs shift from shuffling lo-fi meditations like the title track to piano-centric ballads such as “Still” or perfectly weighted billowy drones like “Another Song to Stop the Spinning”. Interesting that Kendall has put a Spotify playlist together for his followers called Songs to Get Lost In, because that is exactly what he has created with Views From Sixteen Stories.
Links:Â Bandcamp | Alaskan Tapes
Views From Sixteen Stories was mastered by Taylor Deupree and is now available as a black & white marble vinyl LP limited to 200 copies and a gatefold-packaged CD limited to 100 copies as well as digital/streaming.
Stationary Travels 