Vital Weekly (NL)

From the outside it may seem that Taylor Deupree is a busy bee, music-wise, but Northern is his first solo release in two years. Deupree is always busy with his own 12k label (and off shoots Line and Happy), playing live concerts and working with others, so perhaps time is a bit sparse to do his own music. Recently Deupree moved from urban Brooklyn to upstate New York, and the change of atmosphere is a fact. Well, or not? Deupree’s music is, at least for a longer period of time, made of tranquil and silent elements. Textural music, made with sounds from the environment but also electric piano, melodica and guitar, but then highly processed. It is what he has been doing since quite some time now, wether he was in Brooklyn or Pound Ridge, where he is now. But it seems that he takes even more time to tell his story. Only six tracks are present here, mostly lasting around nine to ten minutes. Deupree wants the listener to sit back and take it all in, but in a very slow pace. Things develop, that’s for sure, but everything seems to be taking it’s time, gradually everything becomes bigger and bigger, with subtle sounds added, longer sustains. It’s warm music that may perhaps not fit springtime coming (the cover depicts a winter world), but it’s certainly one of the best Deupree works so far. The calmest and most slow one. (FdW)