It was one point that the press kit mentioned which really spoke to me about the brilliance of this album. It reads, “the pace is never hurried, the music never frenzied in the wrong places, but a perfect balance of snow falling on fir trees and the magnanimous blooms of the summer.” Now, I recognize that this poetic statement, whether written by Simon himself or not, cheaply plays upon the theme of “seasons” that the title establishes, and the cover art is a snowy tree (fir perhaps?) photocopied onto a summer landscape. However, the first part of that quote still rings true of the music itself, so much so that it could even be called definitive of the album.
Pace (in other genres a journalist might refer to this attribute as “flow” or something) is incredibly important as to how an album is perceived, experienced and remembered. If a record’s consonance is too prevalent, it will pass quickly and be forgotten even quicker. However, too much dissonance can slow a record down and make it impossible to finish. But the perfect wax and wane will consistently spark one’s attention and hopefully stand the test of time.
Cheers To The Seasons took two years for Montreal’s Simon Belair to make and you can really hear how precious that time was for him. It is a collage of field recordings, vinyl samples, keyboards, whistles and woodwinds. Although much of the recorded material is cut up and fragmented by distortions and filters, his collages sound more organic than digital. His songs mimic the clever little tricks that the seasons pull on this city, pulses of cool rain in the thick of summer and beautiful sunsets hiding behind the mountain. But all the while, these spurts of spontaneity just end up reinforcing how beautifully goofy nature can be, and Simon’s compositions mirror this back to us in the muffled samples of birds chirping, car motors revvvving and keyboard notes vibrating.
It isn’t just layered, independent sounds but a fluid combination of cleverly placed and randomly looping clicks, drones and buzzes that need the instruments as much as the instruments need them. Seasons comes to life as the compositions change shape throughout the album and mold into these slices of what the world would sound like without walls. A harmonious multiplicity of non-musical, seasonal, noises coming from a variety of sources, all singing together.
Like Tim Hecker, some other stuff.
