Box Musique | Archive of posts in the Sufjan Stevens category

I’ve posted so much electronic shit recently you could be forgiven for thinking I’m slowly falling into my own Tron-like alternate reality, but I swear to you, there is still an organic soul hidden under all these circuit boards. In fact, a little bit of flesh surfaced this week when I started to get into Volcano Choir, the joint project of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and folk heroes Collections of Colonies of Bees. Their debut album, Unmap, was conceived a few years ago but only dropped on Jagjaguwar last September. The release met with largely positive reviews and subsequently fell into my ears provoking a similarly happy response.

At times enchanting, at others a little confusing and piecemeal, Unmap is a diverse instrumental collage delicately augmented by Vernon’s falsetto vocals. Conjuring an atmosphere reminiscent of a wounded Sufjan Stevens, although perhaps a little less epic, there’s a distinctly tidal feel to the record as a constant pastiche of styles and instruments celestially dissolve in and out of earshot. ‘Island, IS’, ‘Still’ (which features the same vocals as ‘Woods’ from Bon Iver’s Blood Bank EP) and ‘Husks and Shells’ are all beautiful tracks which plunge me into a euphoric stupor, but ‘Seeplymouth’ vividly stands out as the undoubted highlight and for your enjoyment, I’ve attached it below. This is music that makes me smile.

Volcano Choir – Seeplymouth

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Buy Volcano Choir music at 7digital.

It’s actually Christmas right now and instead of having fun with my family and chinking glasses full of beer, eating chocolate and watching repeats of the last three days of TV, I’m writing this to wish you well in the very same activities. Of course, in five minutes I’ll be downstairs watching Home Alone and wondering how I could rig up a can of paint to hit my Grandma in the head without killing her, but that’s besides the point.

Oh and if you don’t want to listen to a ’90s compilation of terrible Christmas music at dinner this year, I suggest you get your hands on Sufjan Stevens’ Songs For Christmas. If you’re familiar with Stevens, then I’m sure you can imagine his mellow stylings applied to classic carols. There are some angelic, plucky originals in there too, which are sure to lift your mood and even give your Dad cause to smile as he ponders passing up the offer to join that French model in her hotel suite all those years ago. Or something like that.

Merry Christmas!