Monotreme Records: Barzin

Barzin’s music is evocative on many levels. Its warm autumnal tones conjure up images of waves ebbing back and forth, its slow pulse creating a sense of intimacy whilst remaining expansive and ambitious in scope.

Taking elements of slowcore, alt.country and chamber pop, ‘My Life In Rooms’ the second album from the Canadian songwriter Barzin, has a cinematic ambiance that feels much more at home in the darkness of a cinema’s auditorium than your average living room.

Barzin began as a solo project in 1995 in Toronto, Canada, but has developed into a loose collective of musicians who regularly make appearances on both recordings and live performances. On ‘My Life In Rooms’, the follow up to 2003’s eponymous album, the two main contributors have been Tony Dekker (Great Lake Swimmers) and Suzanne Hancock. Karen Graves, who also arranged Hayden’s 'Elk-Lake Serenade', scored the beautiful string arrangements and in addition Don Kerr, Sandro Perri (Polmo Polpo), Tamara Williamson, Lewis Melville, and Matt Verta-Ray (Heavy Trash) have all helped to shape Barzin’s current sound. The overall sound of the album also owes much to the engineering talents of Mitch Girio and Chris Stringer.

Whilst the melancholic nature of Barzin music is clearly influenced by artists such as Tindersticks, Sparklehorse and Red House Painters he is also aligned with critically acclaimed acts in the current music scene: M Ward, Nina Nastasia, Cat Power, Arap Strap and Smog. Barzin’s songs also have an ambience and richness that can be found on some of Constellation Records more languorous moments.

Thematically ‘My Life In Rooms’ focuses on the subject of art - more specifically the questioning of whether a meaningful life can be achieved through solely devoting oneself to making art? This is especially evident on the beautiful ‘Leaving Time’ but also on the opening ‘Let’s Go Driving’ and the title track ‘My Life In Rooms’.

Barzin’s poetic and often introspective and confessional lyrics, delivered in barely more than a whisper become particularly magical as they’re set to lush strings, French horns, pedal steel and brushed drums. Two of the album highlights, ‘So Much To Call My Own’ and ‘Just More Drugs’, both echo the lo-fi—vocals of ‘Just Like Honey’ by Jesus And Mary Chain and more recently ‘Saturday’ by The Clientele and have your spine tingling to the very last note.

His talent for merging acoustic and electronic sounds really comes together on the instrumental ‘Sometimes The Night’, where a ticking drum machine provides the background to a lingering vibraphone and an almost breathing slide guitar. The album also features a cover of fellow Canadians The Dears’ song ‘Acoustic guitar Phase’.

Welcome to the quiet side of pop.

Barzin's website