For those of you who remember the great nights at Ursa, Martha Wainwright’s club on Avenue du Parc here in Montreal, now with a new owner and called Le P’tit Ours (The Little Bear), this album by Tommy Crane will remind you of some of them. During a dozen or so test nights in 2023-2024, where the ultra-versatile percussionist let himself be tempted by all manner of atmospheric experimentation, his music unfurled with hazy ease, enhanced by the delicate, subtle yet vibrant contributions of a whole host of the city’s finest musicians. Here Warren Spicer (guitar, from Plants and Animals, Unessential Oils), there Claire Devlin (saxes), elsewhere Sarah Rossy (keyboards, vocals), Charlotte Greve (alto sax), Jon Arseneau (bass), Morgan Moore (bass).
Crane didn’t pick the best takes. He literally dug in, reworked the whole thing over and over again, and built this album as much a live one as a studio. The result is a dreamlike journey into a state of soaring wakefulness, instrumental dream pop (with a few exceptions) that veers more into soothing abstraction than predictable commercial playlist. More Lynch/This Mortal Coil than Air or My Bloody Valentine. Of course, add to that the high levels of improvisation of all these extraordinary artists, their solid jazz credentials, and you’re in another place, in a distant but reassuring galaxy. Comforting music that reminds us just how important the Ursa was to the Montreal indie scene, despite its brief existence.
