Artist.......: The National Parks
Album........: Timbervision
Label........: Audiogramme
Genre........: Hip-Hop
Catnr........: ADCD10210
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Jun-29-2007
str.date.....: Jun-06-2007
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: http://www.thenationalparcs.com/
track title time
01. awestruck 03:33
02. powerline 03:11
03. walk the talk 03:30
04. clickety clack 04:19
05. the swamp 01:18
06. border patrol 03:50
07. down by the river 03:46
08. twelve word song 03:17
09. whispers from the grave 01:21
10. brother from another mother 03:41
11. marvels of animal behaviour 03:19
12. pine cone jive 01:47
13. tropical winter 03:35
Runtime 40:27 min
Size 50,5 MB
Release Notes:
THE NATIONAL PARCS
Timbervision
The National Parcs, veterans of MontrealÆs
celebrated Freeworm, have gone into the wild û and
come back with a look and sound thatÆs as big as
the world.
The three young men were born in the backwoods of
Quebec, Malawi and B.C., but bred on Montreal
streets buzzing with the noise of every nation on
earth. For this groundbreaking CD/DVD album, they
strip back down to basics, returning to their roots
in the bush. The great outdoors becomes their
studio, and their songs come alive with all-natural
samples of wood splitting, sand slipping, paddles
slapping, water dripping. Their cameras and
microphones are trained on the trackless woods
around them, but their ears have been trained on
Grime and Hip Hop, Afrobeat and Baile Funk,
American Spirituals and Malian Blues. The resulting
Timbervision tracks are an invitation for the world
to dance, starting with the half-remembered hum of
our own backyards and smuggling in the best that
the world has to offer.
The band first joined forces for FreewormÆs 2001
live shows, which pioneered their fascination with
grafting exotic and broken beats onto the rhythms
of maple forests and canoeing. This was the year
the city first got out of its seats for the trioÆs
infectious found-sound and found-image stage
experience: their Club Soda performance at the
Montreal Electronic Groove Festival won them the
MIMI ôShow of the Yearö award. Two Freeworm albums
later, theyÆre making the partnership official as
The National Parcs. The FrenchûEnglish mash-up of
the bandÆs new name suggests the range of their
influences, while the parkland theme is a nod to
preserving what matters.
Summer, fall and winter, the band went off the grid
to collect the raw materials for the Timbervision
album. Miles away from a studio or even a drum,
they discovered echoes and ambience unlike anything
heard in the city. The footage records the
three-man crew in their natural environment,
banging sticks, jumping on four-wheelers. The
National ParcsÆ new album is a reminder that
freedom makes the kind of art you can move to. This
is the message of Timbervision, shot and recorded
in the wild: let everyone join the party, and let
the party never stop.
According to Vincent Letellier (AKA Freeworm): ôWe
wanted to throw a party that would get five
continents bouncinÆ û and you need more than just
an album for that. You need music and video that
rise up together, shot and recorded as one.ö Says
Chimwemwe Miller, who joins Vincent on the music
and lyrics: ôIf you want to bring the world
together, you need summer hits that ignore borders
and boundaries, but you canÆt close the door on the
shadier stuff: Death in a bone suit, African snow
like a sky full of ashes.ö Ian Cameron, the visual
director responsible for the videosÆ nature
documentary esthetic, agrees: ôMost of all, you
donÆt just ring up six billion neighbours without
knowing where you came from yourself.ö
VINCENT LETELLIER (AKA Freeworm), MUSIC AND LYRICS
Vincent hails from Luskville, a tiny community in
western Quebec. In 1992, as a young
multi-instrumentalist intent on stretching the
potential of his electric guitar, he left his first
band to seek cross-cultural inspiration in
Montreal. VincentÆs debut record as Freeworm,
2000Æs Vegetation = Fuel (Hydrophonik/Indica), spun
organic samples into an urban playlist of
breakbeats, drum and bass, liquid jazz and hip hop.
The Quebec music scene paid notice. He was soon
doing remixes for Bran Van 3000 and Adam Chaki, and
collaborated with Daniel BΘlanger on RΩver Mieux.
He is also sought after for his soundtrack work. He
has traveled in Europe, Brazil, Vietnam and West
Africa, and the talent that has accumulated around
him shone through on the critically acclaimed Solar
Power (2003), which featured no fewer than 27
collaborators. Timbervision marks an ambitious
multimedia return to an ongoing concern:
integrating the sound of the back woods with
cutting-edge pop exploration.
CHIMWEMWE MILLER, MUSIC AND LYRICS
Arriving in Montreal from Malawi at the age of
seven, Chimwemwe stepped directly onto the local
stage û where he continues to this day. Since his
teens, a variety of bands and ensembles have
benefited from his drum, trumpet, piano and vocal
training. In the nineties he joined the People's
Gospel Choir of Montreal, where he went on to be
tapped as baritone/bass soloist.Chimwemwe has
pursued also storytelling for many years, and in
theatre has acted, written, directed and taught,
most notably with the Black Theatre Workshop. He
first lent his stage presence to FreewormÆs live
show in 2001, stunning audiences with his
charismatic percussion and beatboxing skills, and
now joins the rechristened National Parcs for their
trip into the woods. He holds a BFA in
Interdisciplinary Studies from Concordia
University.
IAN CAMERON, DIRECTOR
Ian also lived in Africa as a child, but left C⌠te
dÆIvoire to grow up mostly in Aylmer, Quebec, just
downriver from VincentÆs hometown. On his way to a
BFA in film production from Concordia University,
he built strong credentials in music video
production, and in 2000 broke into the domain of
live video mixing (VJing). He has since performed
alongside most of the worldÆs highest-paid DJs,
worked the main event at large festivals. Although
he enjoys the spontaneous collaborations that live
video mixing may offer, his work with The National
Parcs lets him take the fusion of image and music
image into unexplored territory. Timbervision is
his first opportunity to create an album-length
visual experience. He also works as the Video
Production and Post-Production Coordinator for
Concordia UniversityÆs Intermedia/Cyberarts Major.