Gabe Levine has roots in the Montreal music scene, where
he led experimental-country act Sackville (1994-2002) and was a founding member
of avant-Yiddish collective Black Ox Orkestar (2000-2007), both affiliated with
Constellation Records. Now based in Toronto, his music continues to experiment
with folk forms and traditions, blending them with creative songwriting and
striking arrangements.
The new disc Long Spun Thread is the fruit of a year-long
collaboration between singer-songwriter Gabe Levine and producer Sandro Perri
(well-known for his own work as well as his electro project Polmo Polpo).
Levine and Perri have gathered some of Toronto's finest improvising musicians
for an album of intricate, folk-inflected experimental pop. Blending Krautrock
beats, woozy soul keyboards, fingerpicked guitar, fragile harmonies and soaring
strings and horns, each of these ten songs creates its own sound-world to flesh
out Levine’s introspective and elliptical songwriting. Inspired by artists as
diverse as Curtis Mayfield, Caetano Veloso, Michael Hurley and Arthur Russell,
Levine and Perri combine classic song-forms with layers of sonic inventiveness,
creating a music full of circular movement, wandering melodies and infectious
rhythms.
The players on Long Spun Thread are drawn from celebrated Toronto
folk, jazz, experimental, improvised, and indie pop groups like Canaille,
Muskox, Charms, Timber Timbre, Steamboat, Piege, Not The Wind Not The Flag and
many others. Their sensitivity, energy and inventiveness infuse Long Spun
Thread with a joyful, community spirit, complementing Levine's songwriting and
Perri's production.
"Levine arranges his group like a wayward laboratory
where each member adds subtle creations of sound to the ongoing flow. The
result is at times starkly beautiful, but just as often icily transfixing,
stalled in slow motion." (NME)
Featuring: Gabe Levine (vocals, guitars), Jesse Levine
(organ, rhodes), Mike Smith (bass, string arrangements), Jessica Moore (banjo,
vocals), Jay Anderson (drums), Brandon Valdivia (drums), Sandro Perri (synths),
Julia Collins (violin), Mika Posen (viola), Nick Storring (cello) and Jeremy
Strachan (flute and sax)