It might be thought that a record cobbled together from the recordings of far-flung muscians who rarely meet in person would be a rather piecemeal affair, lacking musical cohesion and feeling more like a compilation than an album. Each such release from the multinational collective Not A Teepee manages to avoid this trap however, perhaps because each album is based around a unifying theme which has the potential to be at once mundane and profound, and so can be twisted to suit the interpretation of each artist while at the same time lending a cohesion to the project. Sparrows, their latest album, is no exception.
Musically, it's a typically diverse affair. Paris-based singer/songwriter Mark McCabe starts proceedings with a gorgeously bittersweet acoustic lament called Fall From The Sky, which features a heartrending vocal melody; Aberdeen band Seas, Starry contribute Dans Les Prisons De Nantes, a collaged soundscape of textured drones and sparse melodic fragments which gives the listener the impression of flying or floating; Fiona Keenan doesn't let her quality control slip one bit with This Is What Writers Do To Each Other, a mournful tune featuring intertwining lines of guitar and vocals; and Kitchen Cynics gives us Sparrow Scratchboard, which is a miniature carnival of ethereal melody bringing a sense of hope and brightness to the album. Elsewhere, collective leader John Hekert layers warm guitar parts to create short-but-sweet folk song Sparrows (for Mike) and Les Pelicans have some fun on a sample-laden slice of psych-inflected rock 'n' roll entitled Who's Scruffy Lookin'?. The album concludes with two suitably epic pieces, the first of which is The Vanishing from London artist It Is A New Day. A haunting chant combined with waves of synth organ give this song the feeling of a requiem, while the distorted birdsong of the electric guitar leads to a wailing crescendo. Bringing the whole thing to a close is Sparrows Will Sing To Your Beautiful Heart by Tim Courtney, who also contributed the arresting cover art for this album. It's a lush ballad underpinned by a sparse and glacial guitar part, building slowly to an anguished chorus of countermelodies which goes right up to point of losing control, before disintegrating into silence.
The quality of songwriting and performance on this Teepee release remains consistently high throughout, and it's clear that Hekert has brought together a very talented group of people with whom to collaborate. What really interests me, though, is the apparent thematic unity of the album. As can be seen from the song titles, the individual interpretations of the Sparrows theme range from the very literal to the more abstract, but nonetheless a sense of cohesion is maintained throughout. Is this a psychological trick? The listener might perceive a united whole emerging from these disparate elements because they are aware that the album is based around a single theme. Perhaps, but the undeniable feeling of melancholy which suffuses this album makes me think that there's a more interesting explanation to be found, probably in the shared cultural consciousness associated with the sparrow in all its guises. It's a bird which, for one reason or another, seems to evoke images of loss and sadness, albeit often with the frail promise of hope. And that's what this album sounds like.
Available for streaming and free download here.
