5.) I Found Your Faces of Montreal - You Are My Symphonic (Top 20 Albums of 2011)

I Found Your Faces Of Montreal

You Are My Symphonic

Bandcamp.

Original SCQ Review

Montreal-based electronic artists really captured SCQ’s attention this year but one release stood out from the pack. A conceptual elegy to his island city. I Found Your Faces Of Montreal traces songwriter Vishal Kassie’s journey from his formative years in Toronto to his home in Quebec’s largest city. Instead of going the Sufjan Stevens’ route by using historical quirks for inspiration, Kassie ties his experiences in with the city’s culture and geography.

Emphasizing emotions over infrastructure is a wise move for Kassie, who crafts a more introspective record by instilling I Found Your Faces Of Montreal with so many relatable rites of passage. Like a travel notebook enduring constant change, You Are My Symphonic’s songs brim with dislocated passion; the sort that will shake some listeners but hearten those with the capacity for it. Expect this album to continue building steam into 2012. 

I Found Your Faces Of Montreal - You Are My Symphonic (SCQ's Autumn Records 2011)

I Found Your Faces Of Montreal

You Are My Symphonic
Independent


SCQ Rating: 88%

Some records you hold onto for just the right moment; still, this was a tough one. Released on the cusp of summer after a three-year recording process, Vishal Kassie’s second record under his You Are My Symphonic moniker instills a still-life beauty ideal for autumn wanderings. Granted, June worked out pretty well regardless, as one can actually hear these songs blossoming into being via pristine acoustic instrumentation and crisp electronic layers. But it’s Kassie’s mournful edge that offers I Found Your Faces Of Montreal its auburn melancholy, a reflective spirit that touches gently on love and loss – themes this record knows all too well.

The record has in effect been written twice; the first being halfway finished when stolen as part of a laptop heist in 2008, the second being Kassie’s present labour of love – rewritten, rearranged, expanded upon and (if we can trust the author’s word) greatly improved. Following 2009’s instrumental wedding-score Afternoon Birds Of Arima, I Found Your Faces Of Montreal has the air of a debut proper. Capturing the same bucolic loveliness that coloured his past ambient efforts, opener ‘Meet Me In Trinity’ unlocks a door by ushering in Kassie’s prowess on the acoustic guitar and a new dimension to You Are My Symphonic’s sound. It has a widescreen appeal, expanding in echo-drenched ivories on ‘Autumn Will Fall In Love’ and rippling over the Ulrich Schnauss-approved ‘Under Your Umbrella, with grandiose aspirations that should no doubt turn off some cynics. Yes, that latter example finds melodies fully maximized, stretched to their life-affirming potential without much thought of restraint, and on early listens can be misunderstood as schmaltzy.

That sentimental veneer is to be cherished, however, as it coats some of the record’s devastating highlights. ‘Rooftop’’s shimmering reverberations house biting details of a dead relationship, the soaring synth on ‘My Father And His Sister’ counteracts some rather glitchy beats, while the title track bears Kassie’s haunting yet irresistible multi-tracked vocals. Like the storied history of the recording process itself, emotions run deep throughout I Found Your Faces Of Montreal’s sprawling eight compositions. Uplifting and heartbreaking – often all at once – You Are My Symphonic has staked himself proprietor of an ambient-folk scene positively alien to Montreal. And on that island’s island, I Found Your Faces Of Montreal is a landmark release waiting to be found.

Autumn Will Fall In Love from You Are My Symphonic on Vimeo.

You Are My Symphonic (SCQ's Year-End Questionnaire Part II)

Montreal resident You Are My Symphonic (aka Vishal Kassie) took a left-turn from his early recordings this year with Afternoon Birds of Arima, a post-classical, instrumental album written to soundtrack his friends’ wedding. A graceful song-suite of piano, guitar and soft ambience, Afternoon Birds of Arima succeeded well beyond wedding hall confines and has found new listeners around the world. While that second You Are My Symphonic release is available for free here, Kassie dives into his favourite albums, songs and the memories that define them.

SCQ: What have been some of your favourite records of 2009? Gush away!

Winter:

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion and Bon Iver - Blood Bank

After a one year hiatus, my best friend and I embarked on a massive listening session from the moment he arrived off the bus just past midnight in the middle of the week. It started with the frosty sounds of title track "Blood Bank" and the layered voiced of "The Woods" that were thrown all over my apartment too quickly for us to catch our breath. It had been several years since the first heart attacks we suffered at the hands of "Feels" and we decided it was about time for MPP. I wish we had set up a camera ready to snap us on the couch like we were on a roller-coaster during those extremely long few seconds of the steepest drop. The first explosive notes threw us off the cushions and it's shockwave shot us against the wall. I would be funny if years from now we'd be searching through our dresser and desk drawers to stumble upon a cheesy photo in a card with our shocked faces in the screaming wind with the words Merriweather Post Pavillion.

Spring:

Dreamsploitation - The Soft Focus Sound Of Today

We packed up the car with the keyboard and guitars to head over to the jam space to play with some friends. "Death To The Chuck I Hate" played CBC Radio 2 and I had to cut the car conversation to concentrate and try to make sense of it. I took note of the time and tried my best to remind myself throughout the night before checking the playlist to find out exactly what jazz-electronic song nearly caused me to swerve off the road. I picked up the album and it was clear I had to wait for the first insanely nice day of spring before opening myself up to Dreamsploitation. Walking through the park filled with people outside who were seeing the sun for the first time in months, the trumpets and strings of The Soft Focus Sound Of Today played a preview of the nostalgia that was coming our way in the upcoming sun filled months.

Peter Broderick - Home

Summer:

Plastik Joy - 3:03
Near the end of June, I returned to Newfoundland, Canada for the funeral of a best friend's mother. The week's emotional moments played one after the other in perfect order like they were best suited for a film storyline that was equally heartbreak, family discovery and comedic segways. That Sunday we toured around the bays and came back to the house to find everyone sleeping and we decided to do the same outside. I played through 3:03 and as I reached the back end, my nose was tickled by my allergies and realized if I continued to stifle my body, I would stop my breath. Marie was on the hammock behind me trying to sleep and I was facing the sun trying to breathe. I let out a giant sneeze at the end of that very track and woke her. I used the long pauses in between the guitar riffs on "Asynchrony of Lives" to calm down that late afternoon and sealed it as my favorite song of the year.

Fall:

Nico Muhly - Mothertongue

SCQ: Be it from the radio, lost on Myspace or your own personal discovery, what song(s) could you not stop spinning?

Telefon Tel Aviv - 'Helen Of Troy'

Farr - 'Senandung Mimpi (Serenade Of A Dream)'
My discovery of Summer Rain Recordings was purely accidental but turned out to be one of the most unexpected and refreshing finds by googling some key words that I thought would be appropriate for an album's first listen. "Summer", "Rain" and "Records" gave me a link to the diversely moody electronic/experimental label and who's artists each donate a percentage of their revenues to NextAid or a charity of their choice. My documentary-travelling had recently shifted to the South Pacific's "Last Nomads" and coincidentally I stumbled upon Farr who hails from Jakarta.

Toro Y Moi - 'Blessa'

SCQ: Seldom celebrated but crucial to The Album’s identity is cover-art. Can you offer any shortlist of personal favourites from the past year?

Danny Norbury - Light In August

Ramses III - I Could Not Love You More

SCQ: When you look back on what transpired this year, what will stand out as your most memorable professional moment(s) of 2009?

This moment actually began in the summer of 2008 when my friends Richard and Keisha asked me in their casual way to write the notes that would start their lives together. I was as much surprised and honored as terrified of the prospect of writing the suite for their entire wedding. After I got past the initial logistic worries (how long does it take a bride to walk up the aisle? I really need 15 minutes of music for people to sit in the pews?) I found myself excited to write. The character of the next three seasons had found their way into Afternoon Birds of Arima which was played at Santa Rosa Catholic Church in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago. This album also marks the 22 years it took me to return to my birthplace. I visited the grave of a brother I never knew and darted across the island from the mountains of the north to the fields of the south to meet with both halves of my family and to recapture those childhood images that became faded. In the past, I had only made a few CDRs for my family and friends but now I see appearances on blogs, message boards and podcasts. I'm happy and relieved to report that the newlyweds hold Afternoon Birds of Arima close to their hearts.

SCQ: Most of us probably haven’t thought as far as New Years Eve plans but still, looking forward, what do you have on the horizon for 2010?

Back in the spring of 2008, I had put together an album that mirrored my move to a new city and how my friends and family kept appearing to me in the streets, on the metro or at a party. It was nearly completed but was tragically lost during a daylight robbery. I'm glad to say that it is being re-written and has taken on a larger personality than its younger sister. I hope to complete it sometime in the upcoming spring. Other than that, maybe I'll finally do what me and my best friend have been talking about with a dreamy tone: Rent a country house for a few weeks and write some haunting melodies with the creaky piano floors.

Afternoon Birds of Arima - You Are My Symphonic

Afternoon Birds of Arima

You Are My Symphonic
Myspace.

SCQ Rating: 80%

From the moment I hear the first lilting piano notes of Afternoon Birds of Arima, it’s a knee-jerk reaction for me to recall You Are My Symphonic (AKA Vishal Kassie)’s evolution to date. Moving from found-sound folk – at first traditional (Through the Forest With My Love), then more ambitious (Let Ring Indefinitely) – to laptop-based songwriting (often bordering on electronica and post-rock), Kassie’s is a discography that would tongue-tie most. Yet two years after This is January, the recording that found him toying with loads of synths and greater production, You Are My Symphonic returns with Afternoon Birds of Arima, a largely instrumental mood-piece written to soundtrack his friend’s wedding. As if it needs to be said, Kassie has thrown the ace of all double-takes.

If in doubt, listen to the opening title track; a fourteen minute splash of cinematic ripples all padding off the parameters of his piano-coda and cresting back into itself. With each pillow-soft collision and expertly timed six-string echo, ‘Afternoon Birds of Arima (Opening Credits)’ seems to puff out its chest, growing not out of pomposity, but out of grace. That its fourteen minutes feels like three is merely a footnote when ‘Almost Time (Flower Girls)’ ushers in, carrying those aforementioned piano arpeggios into a virtual cascade of saintly synths and low-end keys. As with the opening couplet from This is January, these tracks are halves to a whole; suites which together either invoke sweet memories or capture new ones. A much-needed reprieve is found in ‘Painted Lines (The Bride)’ as Kassie ditches much of his palette and lets silence play its key role in a bell-chiming aisle-walk that paves way for the album’s most emotional apex, ‘Walk Out With Me’. Whereas This Is January negated some of its impact by stressing its own presence with conflicting styles, Afternoon Birds of Arima’s singular focus gives credence to these occasional heaves of drama. In other words, we embrace the warmth and anticipation of these movements as if we’re at the chapel, hillside, beach or city hall; breathing in those moments of forever, whether they prove to last or not. If there’s a fracture in the focus, it’s last track ‘Rainfall in Arima (Closing Credits)’, which despite remaining true to the album’s tone and progression, seems like an unforeseen epilogue after the church-bell close of the preceding track. Maybe that’s just me getting caught up in the imagery though; after all, the track boasts an unexpected but smooth vocal performance by guest Anne Farago that wraps things nicely.

Now a word on weddings: we know nearly half of them fail, that they take up our weekends, that open-bar is the greatest draw and small-talk among extended family is tantamount to Chinese water torture. Yet we can also recognize that indescribable feeling of watching two people you thought you knew well, standing in front of each other as unnerved and flushed as first-date romancers. Whether it’s the cash-in expectations of twenty-first century matrimony or (hopefully) the thrill of actual wedlock, people behave as though it’s judgement day at weddings. And it’s that flirtation of permanence, that these two souls might spend their lives hopelessly grateful for one another, that keeps an honest-to-god magic to weddings. Afternoon Birds of Arima encapsulates that do-or-die romanticism and, for that reason alone, shouldn’t be considered exclusive to ceremonial soundtracking. At the very worst, this curious release boasts that You Are My Symphonic might be the best wedding DJ ever. At its best, Afternoon Birds of Arima is an ambient must-listen; Kassie’s first post-classical outing which finds him at home with his production and his muse.