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Red light music

Timber Timbre have been described (by Ottawa Xpress amongst others) as folk/blues/gothic, i.e. hard to label music, and by themselves as writing music 'with chilling authenticity' (quoted from their website). Timber Timbre consists of Taylor Kirk (who released his self-titled Timber Timbre in 2009) along with fellow multi-instrumentalists Mika Posen and Simon Trottier. Making waves as far as the Polaris long list, plus the playlists of BBC 6 Music and British online music magazine The Line Of Best Fit, the combined package was too enticing to refuse. Hence M and I headed to another new (for us) venue, First Baptist Church, for the album launch on 9th April. The church is pretty reasonable for a venue, dry again but this time for obvious reasons.



A sizeable crowd turned up for the evening's entertainment which commenced with duo Tasseomancy - again quite hard to define, but maybe new/alt folk is a good place to start. Formerly known as Ghost Bees, the duo of Sary and Romy Lightman (pictured above) entertained and entranced with a short set, presumably taken from their imminent album (due August, I believe). We caught references to Bat for Lashes, Mogwai, Kate Bush and the spirit of Stevie Nicks. Highly interesting! As of current writing, some of their songs are available for listening on CBC Radio 3's site.

Do 2 points make a trend? - after Frank Horvat comes Timber Timbre? For the duration of Timber Timbre's set, the trio played solely under red light. Nearly 'music in the dark', and almost as relaxing! Sadly red light alone did not make for good pictures, but really we (and the whole audience) were far to engrossed in the music. The gig was an album launch event for new record Creep On Creeping On and the set comprised of songs from the LP -yes, Creep On Creeping On is available on 180g white vinyl, as well as CD etc. Timber Timbre's own words (again from their website) best describe the intensely interesting songs - 'heartrending compositions that engage, transport and challenge'. Engage is a key word - compared to many many gigs, the audience were almost totally silent. I am inclined to believe that the music being performed was the main reason for this communal transportation, rather than the seated venue (pews), lack of lights or lack of alcohol.

All in all a brilliantly engaging evening!

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