CANADIAN RIFLES (PT)

The first full-length collaboration between Burning Pyre and Canadian Rifles, The Snipe & The Clam encapsulates a shared sensibility and vision. Initially seen together on the Vienna Press/Vaagner compilation A Declaration in 2019, which was followed up with a second piece last year on Burning Pyre’s Opal Tapes debut, United Angels, the two artists cultivate a unique aural world with a singular voice.

Taking a contemporary yet deeply romantic approach to ambient music, The Snipe & The Clam showcases a blend of luscious synth melodies and harmonics, set against a heavily organic dynamic backbone. An adapted representation of both artists’ methods and modus operandi, opulent glimmering drones flow with a sense of narrative, contributing a magical watercolour-like quality to the album’s eight instrumental pieces. As if lightness met the restraint of a disciplined wrist – every sharp note is a flap of wings across its airy background.

The Snipe & The Clam often feels like an emotional exercise on the stoppage of time, gliding between loving gestures and precise crescendos, delivering both a flourish of exposition and a reflection on intimate moments. A definitive summit in each respective artists’ discographies until this point, The Snipe & The Clam is an elegy to tenderness and finding beauty in minute details.

A golden archway – come spring.