Gordy the moose reviews some of his favourite new submissions to the Roots Music Canada virtual mailbox.
All I had to do was look at the title of Avi C. Engel’s latest album, Nocturne (Soundtrack for an Invisible Film), to imagine what it might sound like.
And I wasn’t disappointed.
Dreamy, atmospheric, at times cinematic, at times blurring the boundaries between music and audio art, Nocturne is very much the kind of album you might listen to while lying awake at night waiting for sleep to come.
In fact, Avi wrote it during a period of sleeplessness and depression, they said, in an effort to soothe their mind.
The album largely alternates between songs and tunes, and many of the pieces have a mantra-like quality. Lyrics and melodic passages repeat over and over again, notably on tracks like “E Minor Fermented” and “Bones Beguiling,” which has a Gregorian chant-like quality to it.
“Late Night Walk in the Loon Sanctuary” is a particularly cool piece that creates the titular experience with percussion and vocal effects.
Other tracks are a little sweeter, like the acoustic guitar-driven “Nostalgia, a Saccharin Poison” and the ethereal “Ariel.” But even at the album’s brightest, it remains both melancholy and haunting.
“I’m not writing the same song over and over so much as writing one long continuous song that will end when I die,” Avi says in their bio.
I love that statement, and it feels a propos when listening to Nocturne. Because the album really does feel like a single work that’s tied to a larger whole.
By my count, this is Avi C. Engel’s 36th album in a career spanning around 20 years. But if their name doesn’t sound familiar, that’s because they changed their first name three albums ago.
Rest assured though, this highly prolific artist is a master of their craft, and a singular voice in the Toronto alt.folk scene.
