Review of Northern [12k1037]

Gazeta (PL)

Reviewing an album full of winter themes is a bit of a misnomer. When it’s a sweltering 35 Celsius outside, it’s rather odd to look at these stark pictures [all taken by Deupree] done during the dead of winter. Taylor Deupree who has recently moved from New York to the quiet backyard town in northern New York State must surely have felt some inspiration by his new surroundings. How else do you explain the revelations on the record? How can you explain the continuing stark haunting that prevails much of this work? King of microtones, Deupree now shifts away from the static and the quiet glitching and moves into a more “organic” territory. It’s not as if he’s picked up an acoustic guitar and gone on a PBS-sponsored tour of the west. Though, on second thought, a guitar does make an appearance within the mass of the music presented here [what’s more, it’s clearly recognizable!]. I hear bells chiming quietly away in the musky wind and I hear something that resembles an old organ though this is heavily processed, though edges have been removed. On “Haze It May Be” there is particular delicate twinkling of a piano filtered through a computer. While sine waves are audible throughout, the stillness that prevails on the record is not broken. Surprising is Deupree’s use of melodica on the closing piece “November”. It appears out of nowhere and is accompanied by processed piano loops that permeate the piece throughout. This is a creaseless creation, full of wonder and surprise everywhere you turn. Microtonal, ambient and revelatory to the core, Northern is very much a record for all seasons and places. Deupree has again proven himself to be the master of introspective music.

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