Snowblink’s newest release, Returning Current, is a study of human relationships – to self, to other, and to Other, and to the threat or actuality of losing those unrepeatable prizes. The duo of Daniela Gesundheit and Dan Goldman began the recording process with a text based ‘mood board’ developed by Gesundheit to portray the sensations she wished to evoke in the production of the album. The musicians, producers, and engineers were faced with the task of sonically approximating themes of santa fe / arizona / palm springs / calypso disco / lots of space with bursts or ripples of sound.

Practically, this ambition meant that the band approached each song uniquely – here a full band live off the floor in a winter cabin, there a painstaking half-year-long process of revision, here a drum sample from years ago mixed with dozens of layers of analog synths and vocals. In sculpting the singular sound of Returning Current, no process was out of bounds – the band made themselves equally at home with a bevy of acoustic instruments, analog processes, or sample-based in-the-box production choices.

Joining Snowblink in studio for the creation of Returning Current was co-producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas), and a cast of acclaimed musicians including Leslie Feist, Owen Pallett, Barbara Gruska (Fiona Apple, Jenny Lewis, Ray LaMontagne), Johnny Spence (Tegan and Sara), Thom Gill, Ariel Engle (AroarA), Steven Foster (Doldrums), Felicity Williams (Bahamas), Philipe Melanson (Rufus Wainwright), Mika Posen (Timber Timbre), and many others.

What results is “mastery at its liquidiest” claimed Feist in a personal letter to the band. A collection of songs that find the speaker reporting, in the stark, James Blake-esque ballad “Second Sight”, that “the sky was kneeling on my back to pray,” or elucidating the slipperiness of desire, as in Returning Current. These are private songs, domestic songs, songs to be absorbed over time – unhurried, biological time, the passage of which helps us to survive ourselves.

RETURNING CURRENT TRACKLIST

dayside
How Now
Exotic Bird
Cyclone
Feel Like a Man
Returning Current

nightside
Foothills
Second Sight
Cobalt Clear
Torn to Light
Wild Here

SNOWBLINK TOUR DATES
9/9 – The Capital, Fredericton
9/10 – Buoy Gallery, Portsmouth
9/11 – Trans Pico, Brooklyn
9/15 – Casa Del Popolo, Montreal
9/16 – Pressed, Ottawa
9/17 – Sandbanks Festival, Picton
9/18 – Park Theatre, Winnipeg
9/19 – Bassment, Saskatoon
9/21 – Broken City, Calgary
9/22 – The Flying Steam Shovel, Rossland
9/23 – China Cloud, Vancouver
9/26 – Hungry Brain, Chicago
9/27 – Rock Island, Illinois, TBD
10/01 – Quixotic Sounds (in-store), Toronto
10/5 – Starlight, Waterloo
10/7 – The Garnett, Peterborough
10/8 – Burdock, Toronto
10/9 – Burdock, Toronto