The Weath­er Sta­tion has released a new sin­gle and video called Atlantic, from forth­com­ing album Igno­rance (5th Feb­ru­ary on Fat Possum). 

The Weath­er Sta­tion is a project lead by Cana­di­an singer song­writer Tama­ra Lin­de­man. This lat­est work is intense­ly per­son­al (Tama­ra also direct­ed the video) and it cap­tures the present mood of uncer­tain­ty, with cli­mate change at the fore­front. Atlantic describes how even the most joy­ful moments are invad­ed by wor­ry and dread. 

Atlantic is a star­tling, unusu­al and brood­ing work, ele­gant­ly arranged with a lush expan­sive­ness yet suf­fused with ten­sion. A per­cus­sive and jit­tery lay­er mesh­es with rich gui­tars and key­boards and flute flour­ish­es while Lin­de­man’s sul­try vocals anchor it all down. “My god, I thought what a sun­set … blood red floods the Atlantic”.

Says Lin­de­man: “Try­ing to cap­ture some­thing of the slip­ping feel­ing I think we all feel, the feel­ing of dread, even in beau­ti­ful moments, even when you’re a lit­tle drunk on a sea cliff watch­ing the sun go down while seabirds fly around you; that slip­ping feel­ing is still there, that feel­ing of dread, of know­ing that every­thing you see is in per­il.”

The album Igno­rance fea­tures an impres­sive crew of musi­cians, includ­ing Kier­an Adams (drums, per­cus­sion), Ben White­ley (bass), Philippe Melan­son (per­cus­sion), Brodie West (sax­o­phone), and Ryan Dri­ver (flute). The band was round­ed out by John­ny Spence (keys) and Chris­tine Bougie (gui­tar); Lin­de­man played piano, sang, and con­tributed dis­tort­ed gui­tar solos. Mon­tre­al pro­duc­er Mar­cus Paquin (Arcade Fire) co-pro­duced, with Lin­de­man, and also mixed the record.

The pro­jec­t’s pre­vi­ous sin­gle Rob­ber is cur­rent­ly get­ting air­play on Radio 6 music, it’s sim­i­lar in feel to Atlantic but echoes of Talk Talk as the vocals float over the per­cus­sive instru­men­ta­tion. Their pre­vi­ous album from 2017 called The Weath­er Sta­tion is also a stun­ning piece of work that will please Joni Mitchell lovers. Tama­ra and crew are firm­ly on my ‘to see’ list once we’re out of lockdown.

The Weath­er Sta­tion will present a full band per­for­mance of Igno­rance in its entire­ty on Thurs­day, Feb­ru­ary 11th. Tick­ets for the livestream are avail­able here.

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© Daniel Dorsa