And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust...
To Build a Home (feat. Patrick Watson)
(from The Cinematic Orchestra album, Ma Fleur)
The Cinematic Orchestra has been the musical project of one Jason Swinscoe, known for producing wonderfully lush pieces set to non-existent films. Cinematic, it certainly is -- as implied by the name. And now just last month a new LP dropped from this group, taking a departure from the jazzed-up, sample-driven downbeat, and venturing into a territory more personal, more sentimental, and more soulful and sparse in sound. Word has it that the new album, Ma Fleur was actually composed for a film; or rather, the screenplay of a film especially written for this record for which to flesh out all the instrumentation. It is, by and far, a concept album, but one that keeps emotion centered at its base. What you get in the end from listening to it is a moving soundtrack suited to everyday life.
One single in particular, "To Build a Home," (shown above) features the vocals and deep lyricism of a man named Patrick Watson. His voice sounds much like Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, but not nearly as wavering. Still, the fragility is there, and he drives the song home. I am only mentioning "To Build a Home" because alongside the material off of Antony and the Johnson's I Am a Bird Now album (courtesy of explodinguterus), it is one of the prettiest songs I've heard. The rest of Ma Fleur is spectacular as well.
I also wanted to note -- mainly to vinnchan -- that I think I've found the perfect soundtrack to Murakami's Norwegian Wood. This single, and the rest of the Ma Fleur album, encompass the feelings and themes of the overall novel, I feel. I'm still not finished with it yet, but up to where I've read thus far it works as a soundtrack, it really does.