Timber Timbre

Timber Timbre
Lovage

Six years after their last studio album, Canadian band Timber Timbre are finally releasing a new album entitled "Lovage" - Taylor Kirk's most accomplished and captivating work to date. "Lovage" is an album that combines twisted piano ballads and spiritual jazz interludes on islands of exoticism and psyche-prog with a Spectoresque girl-group cabaret. The album was recorded in Quebec in 2022 with Mike Dubue (Hilotrons). It features contributions from Olivier Fairfield (Fet Nat, Andy Shauf) and members of the gospel choir Voices of Praise (Howe Gelb). Sonically, it marks a return to previous form after the brilliant "Sincerely, Future Pollution". The album is out now via Timber Timbre's own Hot Dreams Records and [Integral].

Since the release and extensive touring of 'Sincerely, Future Pollution' (2017), Taylor Kirk has been involved as a producer on several full-length LPs, including Joseph Martone's 'Honeybirds' and This Lonesome Paradise's second album 'Nightshades'. Timber Timbre has secretly released two cassette-only EPs: "I Am Coming To Paris" and "The Dissociation Tapes Volume 1". Finally, they return with a new album called "Lovage", Timber Timbre's most accomplished and captivating work to date. However, this doesn't mean that Taylor Kirk has merely refined his working methods. In fact, "Lovage" is a true masterpiece, as Kirk manages to unite disparate influences that would otherwise be considered incompatible. Together with producer and sound engineer Michael Dubue, he reconciles the rich sonic tapestry of Brian Wilson with the amused melancholy of Leonard Cohen. When asked about these influences, Taylor admits that they are certainly cornerstones. "Brian Wilson and Leonard Cohen are among many influences that epitomize music for me."

Kirk confesses that he has re-engaged with Sun Ra, Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, as well as Italian singers such as Pino Daniele and Paolo Conte, which might explain the cinematic lightness of the new album. When asked about The Velvet Underground, he replied hesitantly: "I wouldn't say I sound like Lou Reed," Kirk explains. "But I also aspire to the slenderness he brings to his lyrics and stories."

Another connection to Lou Reed is the sarcastic humor that is ever-present in Timber Timbre's work, despite the social commentary evident in the new songs, as in the album's opening track, "Ask The Community." "I'm happy when the humor comes across," Kirk says. "It's not always recognized, but then again, I'm not always sure when I'm joking myself."

The electronic elements that characterized Timber Timbre's previous album, "Sincerely, Future Pollution," return on "Lovage," but with more restrained confidence. "That album became a kind of study of the genre that was a bit outside of Timber Timbre's sonic evolution," he explains, "because I had no history with electronic music at the time. It was very painstaking and much more contrived. What's special about this album is that it's much more spontaneous than 'Sincerely, Future Pollution' or any of my previous recordings, generally speaking."

Kirk developed "Lovage" in close collaboration with Michael Dubue at Studio Cimetière in Quyon, Quebec. "Michael originally invited me to contribute to a song he was working on," Kirk explains. "Because we got along really well, we ended up putting together an entire album from the song ideas I had collected during a few years of domestic restrictions - while I was recovering from long periods of unhealthy touring habits and lifestyle."

The collaboration proved to be very fruitful, with Michael Dubue joining Timber Timbre on keyboards and vocals, while Adam Bradley Schreiber completed the current line-up on drums and percussion. "Michael is much more musically accomplished than I am," Taylor continues. "While I've often felt limited by my own abilities in the past, Mike has helped me when I've hit a wall or written myself into a corner. He often brings in ideas that I would never have come up with on my own or that I couldn't implement instrumentally."

Kirk returned to his native Ontario in 2019 after spending time in Quebec and Texas. Just in time to sit out the Covid pandemic and regroup. "I moved back to Ontario where I grew up, a place I left 20 years ago and vowed never to return to. 'Holy Motors' is a tribute to this place that I love and hate - but also love to hate," he says of the city where he spent the lockdown. "But it's a good place to be trapped."

The same could be said of the sonic landscapes he conjures up on "Lovage": "It's a wonderful album to be trapped in, a modern masterpiece for difficult times that you'll return to again and again."