Published Apr 29, 2021
8Joseph Shabason has spent much of his career in service to others. Whether it s through his work as a member of synthpop group DIANA, sideman in Destroyer or session musician, the Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist Shabason is an ace at helping others realize their artistic vision. So it should come as no surprise that for his solo career Shabason tends to dig deep into his personal life for inspiration. 2018 s
The Fellowship, this time digging into his own upbringing in a dual-faith household in suburban Toronto. Though raised in traditional Jewish households, his parents adopted spiritual Islam in their 20s and raised Shabason and his sister with both religions. His childhood, he says, was pretty wonked.
As autobiographical instrumental experiences go, Joseph Shabason’s
The Fellowship starts pretty appropriately. On “Life With My Grandparents”, simple, deliberately paced keyboard chords and highly processed saxophone notes float across a mysterious music bed. But it’s the cassette recording of a child’s voice, weaving in and out of the track, that adds a sonic layer that’s both mysterious and also indicative of the hazy memories of early childhood. With this combination of sounds, the listener is drawn into perhaps the most personal project of Shabason’s so far.
Shabason, a Toronto-based saxophonist, has collaborated with Destroyer, the War on Drugs, the synthpop band DIANA, and countless others. But as a solo artist, he’s no stranger to infusing deep personal experiences into his music. The albums
His next project,
This Spring, is again unconventional: a collection of songs written and first released by the art rock musician Veda Hille, one of Krgovich s earliest mentors and now closest friends. The latest single from the record, premiering below alongside a video directed by Derek Janzen, is âLuckLucky,â which originally appeared as the first song on Hille s 2008 LP
This Riot Life. Hille s original was a lively anti-folk track, triumphant and defiant and punctuated by a regal trumpet. Krgovich, true to form, applies a softer filter to the track, making Hille s bold key changes sound dreamlike and meditative. âIâve always loved it,â Krgovich said of the song in a statement. âI love the looking back and the looking forward simultaneously. Kind of like she zeroâd in on the exuberant âwell, how did I get here?â from Talking Headsâ âOnce In A Lifetimeâ and centred a whole song around it. Veda
Listen to Two More Singles from Joseph Shabason s The Fellowship
Hear Escape from North York and 0-13 from the Toronto artist
Published Feb 24, 2021
Toronto sax explorer Joseph Shabason recently announced plans for a solo album called
The Fellowship and shared its title tracks. Today, he s gone a step further and shared two songs from the LP.
Both Escape from North York and 0-13 can be streamed below. The songs play into
The Fellowship as an overarching narrative about Shabason s own life. As a listening experience
The Fellowship follows a chronological arc that spans three generations covering his parents early lives, his own spiritual and physical adolescence, and his subsequent struggle to eschew the problematic habituations of such a conflicted past, a press release explains.
Joseph Shabason Unveils New Autobiographical Album The Fellowship
Watch a video for the upcoming record s title track
The Fellowship, and you can already check out its title title.
A press release explains the album s concept like this:
Across eight tracks that mesh spacious, jazz-laced composition with fourth-world and adult-contemporary tonality, Toronto saxophonist Joseph Shabason sketches an auditory map of the transcendence, unity, conditioning, and eventual renunciation of his upbringing in an Islamic and Jewish dual-faith household. The resulting album The Fellowship bears the name of the insular Islamic community Shabason s traditionally Jewish parents belonged to from a time before he was even born; a mental and spiritual push pull which continued shaping, even controlling, his outlook well into his adulthood.