July 27, 2005 | Posted by blair at 06:51 PM

l'Acier

heartbreakers
"Sweet Grace For Devious" by Fifths Of Seven

Now, you all know my posts here at MFR pretty much just take the form of either electronic music, or some kind of indie rock. However, being a pretty well trained music-listener, I'm always willing to give different things a chance. This is one of those out of the ordinary things that I found so striking I thought I really had to share it with you.

Fifths Of Seven are a three-piece from Montreal, Canada. They are Beckie Foon on Cello, a member of A Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire to Flames, and Esmerine; Rachel Levine on Mandolin, a member of Cakelk (with Alexandre St Onge); and Spencer Krug on Piano & Accordian, formerly with Frog Eyes and currently a member of Wolf Parade. Together these three rather talented musicians make this stuningly beautiful music using simple melodies and beautiful harmonics between the instruments. Some of the songs sound like traditional European folk music (mostly the Mandolin there), and some, like this song, sound like soundtrack music to a heartbreaking film.

I guess there's some connection here, via Fifths Of Seven's label, Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier (fr: Sun and Steel Records) and the Montreal experimental scene, to the Constellation label, home to Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Fly Pan Am, Polmo Pove, and Black Ox Orkestar... a scene I admitedly know little about, though I do know that G!YBE is pretty awesome. I don't know if any of you readers out there know much about this branch of the experimental/orchestral-instrumental scene, but I'd be happy to hear more from you if so.

You can buy Fifths Of Seven's new album Spry From Bitter Anise Folds direct from the label, here, or from my friends at Forced Exposure.

Comments

This is quite nice. This is on the same label as Sylvain Chauveau (he also releases on a branch of FatCat), whose piano material is really beautiful. In fact, piano music seems to have made some inroads into the IDM/experimental scene over the last year or so. Also, check out the Max Richter on FatCat/130701, if you haven't heard it yet.

Posted by: angryrobot at July 27, 2005 08:11 PM

Hey everyone, i just got the soundtrack for the Katamari Damacy sequel, and it is fantastic.

Posted by: ben at July 27, 2005 08:37 PM

right now i'm sitting at my desk here in dallas, texas. and fate, i suppose, has landed me here on your site listening to this beautiful work of melody and counterpoint..........thank you for this post.....it warms my heart to know that there are young musicans out there who can think outside the world of the (verse-hook-verse-hook-bridge-hook) pop song.

Posted by: jack at August 3, 2005 02:34 AM

I've been listening to this album for most of the last week. It's brilliant.

Posted by: Kansas at August 15, 2005 12:12 AM
Post a comment















Remember personal info?

Human verification:

To help eliminate comment spam, you must enter the anti-spam code shown in the box below. Don't forget to do this! Your comment may end up in the junk bin if you dont...