Peggy Lee & Cole Schmidt – Forever Stories of: Moving Parties

Peggy Lee and Cole Schmidt are two improvisers active on the Vancouver scene. The cellist and guitarist play together in a number of the city’s bands , and for some time now have been exploring the possibilities of a two-person collaboration.

Although Vancouver’s cultural scene is vibrant, the gravitational pull of Montreal is felt all the way to the far west coast, as the idea for this album was hatched during a residency held in Montreal in 2017. The album itself was largely recorded at Hotel2Tango studio in Montreal, with additional sessions in Vancouver, New York, Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Melbourne…

It also features Erika Angell and Mili Hong, two of Montreal’s leading indie and jazz stars. Add Vancouver’s Meredith Bates to the mix, along with Americans like Wayne Horvitz and Frank Rosaly (Puerto Rico), among others, and the Lee/Schmidt duo takes on some serious substance.

In truth, the cello/guitar duet is the pretext for a highly refined orchestral blossoming, but with something visceral in the way it is communicated and played. Visceral in the sense of being authentic right down to the skin, not as an indicator of aggression. On the contrary, the whole album feels like a soaring and mostly peaceful exploration of a multitude of delicate textures that draw on jazz, of course, but also ambient, indie, contemporary classical music, minimalism, prog rock and more. A few remarkable exceptions to the rule come in epic form, somewhere in the vein of Godspeed but less electric (grandiose Sun Gods).

Forever Stories of: Moving Parties is imbued with a seductive sonic magic that is both aesthetically enchanting and intellectually stimulating.