“Common
Wealth” is Bird By Snow’s 4th LP, and their 1st record
made outside of their own lo-fi home studio. But Bird By Snow
stays true to their analog roots by conducting ceremony with tape
alchemist Tim Green who recorded and produced this album
and has cast countless other magic spells with artists such as
Joanna Newsom, Daniel Higgs, Wolves in the Throne Room,
and a multitude more. This CD comes in a beautifully printed cardboard
gatefold sleeve.
“Common
Wealth” is a watershed of song, an album of arrangements
that behave more like an ecosystem. The interdependence of the
instruments that dwell in the wilds of this record give the impression
that the sounds here create themselves and all other sounds simultaneously.
This
album begins when a shaker wakes in the darkness, the first sign
of approaching warmth, like spring thaw on a frozen river. The
icy shaker that floats on the water is joined by skin drums resounding
from the hillside, and by pump-organs migrating over-head with
geese. The cirrus clouds are spectral piano trills; the marching
cumulous clouds, piano bass-lines. Steel drums, autoharps, vibraphones
and dulcimers burst suddenly from under rocks like crawfish. Voices
high and mellow dance on the surface of the water with flecks
of sunlight. The boulders churning in the deepest pools are the
bass, the cymbals, and a thundering gong. And the flow of the
river itself, the invisible energy, is guitars, electric and nylon.
This river flows between an ancient glacier and a vast ocean.
The mind glacier melts into poetry, lyrics that travel with those
sound sediments back to the source: the endless ocean of gratitude,
and openness.
{mastered
by Tim Green}
SOME
PRESS FOR THIS ALBUM
“Something
really special... rich, moody songs with an astonishing depth.”
– The Bay Bridged
“The
vocals sound round and full, like being surrounded by a blanket
and then the blanket turns out to actually be some dude’s
voice. Which actually, if you really think about it hard, is kind
of nightmarish… so maybe don’t think about it that
hard. This voice paired with tip-toeing guitar lines and the soft
hiss of empty space is basically what it feels like to hole up
in a warm wood cabin for awhile.” – The Fader
"Bird
By Snow was born in the air between beach fires, big skies, and
long-shuttered winter cabins. Let the ‘good flow’
flow with two headily vocaled, woodsy folk tunes harvested from
Common Wealth, the new mystical drifter LP available for frost-bitten
sleepovers and long, winding walks now." – RCRD
LBL
"This
is music as natural as sunshine, rolling off his strings and keys
like rain off a slick surface." 9 out of 10 – No
Ripcord
"Soft
and mystical, Bird By Snow have been making dreamy folk pop with
psych-ish elements for the past few years... perfectly marrying
strong songwriting with an elegant ambiance of needlepoint guitar
work, spacious drumming and pretty female backing vocals. A perfect
record to cozy up to a fire in the dark winter months." –
Aquarius
Records
"Common
Wealth's strongest quality lies in its inability to be pinned down;
Tucker's work is now something that resists easy summary -- one
can hear everything from understated folk antecedents to fraught
metal extremes to shadowed goth touches throughout its seven songs,
but at no point is it simply one of those approaches, or any other
one, for that matter." – AllMusic
TRACKS
1.
Wobbly Legs 2. Friends in the City 3.
One White Flag 4. There is a Marriage 5.
As we are now 6. Without Reaching 7.
Across the Water
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