{"id":149059,"date":"2012-06-13T14:44:03","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T14:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/great-lake-swimmers-organic-sound-new-energy\/"},"modified":"2012-06-13T14:44:03","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T14:44:03","slug":"great-lake-swimmers-organic-sound-new-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/great-lake-swimmers-organic-sound-new-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Lake Swimmers’ organic sound, new energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For Tony Dekker, recording \u2013 like real estate \u2013 is all about location. The Great Lake Swimmers frontman has made a habit of working in unusual settings, beginning with his Toronto-based group\u2019s 2003 self-titled debut, recorded in an abandoned grain silo. Since then, Dekker has opted for churches, legion halls and even an historic castle in the Thousand Islands to commit his atmospheric folk-rock songs to tape.<\/p>\n

With its fifth album,\u00a0New Wild Everywhere<\/em>, the Great Lake Swimmers chose what was, for them, an exotic location: a real recording studio. \u201cIt was a new challenge for us,\u201d laughs Dekker. \u201cWe\u2019ve been so used to all the work that goes into putting together these location recordings. Andy Magoffin, our longtime engineer who produced the new album, was really excited to hear what we\u2019d sound like in a so-called proper studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recorded at Toronto\u2019s Revolution Recording, New Wild Everywhere benefits from the freedom to focus on music rather than location logistics. It\u2019s also enhanced by the group’s current lineup. Says Dekker: \u201cWe developed great chemistry touring the last album [the Polaris Music Prize-nominated Lost Channels] and that\u2019s given us a really natural, organic sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Songs like \u201cCornflower Blue\u201d and \u201cFields of Progeny\u201d (along with its French counterpart \u201cLes champs de prog\u00e9niture\u201d) are slow waltzes steeped in the rural sounds of Dekker\u2019s youth. But the spirited title track and the rousing \u201cEasy Come Easy Go\u201d are easily the band\u2019s most uptempo songs to date.
\nThat new energy is another byproduct of the confidence that comes from lengthy touring. Dekker, who started Great Lake Swimmers as a solo project, has long been hailed for his fragile songs and ethereal voice. Now he has a solid band to stretch out with. The use of a string quartet, with arrangements by Higgins, has further enriched the sound.<\/p>\n

As with all of Dekker\u2019s writing, New Wild Everywhere deals largely with spirituality and nature, especially the elements of wind and water. \u201cI love the kind of harsh reality that underlies the natural world,\u201d says Dekker. Growing up in a rural location will do that. So, too, will studying the works of Walt Whitman, William Faulkner and Henry David Thoreau, as Dekker did.<\/p>\n

One exception to his rural-world focus is \u201cParkdale Blues,\u201d a song set in the Toronto neighborhood that recalls Bruce Cockburn\u2019s brand of urban reportage. Another is \u201cThe Great Exhale,\u201d which was recorded in Toronto\u2019s unused Lower Bay subway station. Clearly, Dekker couldn\u2019t resist the chance to make at least one location recording.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very nocturnal session, because we had to record when the trains above weren\u2019t running,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd because it\u2019s like a ghost station, that gave it some amazing ambience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Track Record<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Great Lake Swimmers’ current lineup is guitarist and banjo player Erik Arnesen, upright bassist Bret Higgins, drummer Greg Millson, and newcomer Miranda Mulholland on violin and backup vocals.
\n\u2022 Tony Dekker grew up on a working farm in tiny Wainfleet, Ontario.
\n\u2022 He’s also earned a literature degree from the University of Western Ontario.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Songwriter Tony Dekker deals with spirituality, nature<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-non-categorise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}