Bell Orchestre N.E. American Tour Starts Soon

Great American music blog Brooklyn Vegan has been touting Bell Orchestre lately, more evidence of Canadian music spreading abroad. The six member band cites influences as varied as Lee “Scratch” Perry, Arvo Pärt, The Penguin Café Orchestra, and Talk Talk, but crafts a decidedly unique pastiche of sounds on their instrumental tracks - sometimes pastoral, sometimes raucous, always unique and cerebral.

The band scored huge on its sophomore release on Canadian Indie mega-label Arts & Crafts: As Seen Through Windows features John McEntire (Tortoise, the Sea and Cake) recording the disc. Here's how the band describes the result on their own website:

"The result is at once fierce and beautiful, delicate and dirty. McEntire’s
extensive studio knowledge and attention to craft provided Bell Orchestre with a
kind of bridge, spanning the diversity of their sound to create a richly layered
and sonically expansive recording; a recording that closely mirrors Bell
Orchestre’s very process of making music. Opening with the distressed sound of
muted and distorted horns, strings and drums—an almost monstrous sound, the
album effortlessly shifts into an elaborate and soaring movement, sometimes
edging close to fragility, sometimes on the verge of exploding, but never once
faltering nor threatening to lose its way."

Sounds amazing to me....

The band heads out on the road the first week of April, hitting mostly Quebec, eastern Ontario and Toronto, and culminating with what I am sure will be one of THE must-see sets at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. What's really cool is that Bell Orchestre has secured a few churches to perform in (notably in Kingston and Ottawa), and that ought to be one fantastic experience.

Here are the dates - don't miss it if you can:

4 Apr 2009 21:00 Sydenham Street United Church w/ Colin Stetson Kingston, Ontario
16 Apr 2009 20:00 Theatre Granada w/ Colin Stetson & Julie Doiron Sherbrooke, Quebec
17 Apr 2009 19:30 Theatre Petit Champlain w/ Colin Stetson & Little Scream Quebec, Quebec

18 Apr 2009 20:30 First Baptist Church w/ Colin Stetson & Little Scream Ottawa, Ontario
19 Apr 2009 22:50 La Tulipe w/ Colin Stetson & Little Scream Montreal, Quebec
23 Apr 2009 23:00 Starlight Social Club w/ Colin Stetson Waterloo, Ontario
24 Apr 2009 20:00 Courthouse w/ Colin Stetson Toronto, Ontario
25 Apr 2009 20:00 Casbah Hamilton Hamilton, Ontario
30 Apr 2009 18:30 Le Poisson Rouge New York, New York
1 May 2009 21:00 Somerville Theater w/ Colin Stetson & The Havels Somerville, Massachusetts
10 Jul 2009 20:00 Winnipeg Folk Festival Winnipeg, Manitoba
11 Jul 2009 20:00 Winnipeg Folk Festival Winnipeg, Manitoba

And here's Bell Orchestre performing at the Hillside Inside Festival in Guelph earlier this year: