Timber Timbre

As we settle into the fifth month of the interminable North Florida summer, I find myself dreaming of late autumn and winter. I’d abandon the sunshine, tropical drinks and flip flops in a heartbeat for long, cold nights huddled in front of a fire sipping a heavy, full-bodied red and listening to the haunting music of Timber Timbre…. I’ve still got a few months before that dream comes to fruition, but I’m definitely keen to tell you a bit about this artist who captures the aural sense of frigid isolation so beautifully.

Timber Timbre (a.k.a. Taylor Kirk) is a gothic folk-blues project from Toronto, Canada that I discovered while on holiday up there this past April. I was instantly struck by his ghostly vocals atop such sparse yet darkly atmospheric music. At the moment, there isn’t a great deal of information about this rather reclusive musician (yes, this will probably be a short post), but I’m willing to bet that’s going to change very soon!

Why I love him (and you should too)

Taylor Kirk studied film at the Ontario College of Art, and throughout university, he played in bands mostly as a drummer. Upon graduation, he discovered that he enjoyed writing songs more than making films. So he began his music career recording a series of lo-fi, acoustic songs in his bedroom in Toronto.

In 2006 Kirk released his first album, Cedar Shakes, under the name Timber Timbre. This stage name was a play on the sound quality of his beat-up guitar (timbre) and his father’s yelling “Timber!” when trees crashed on the family farm in rural Ontario.

For his self-titled third album, Timber Timbre once again recorded in his home studio. But this time he called on the help of other artists to fill in strings, banjo, accompanying vocals as well as a few screams. The album was finished at the Lincoln County Social Club with producer Chris Stringer (Rush, The D'Urbervilles, Ohbijou, David Wilcox) and released on indie label, Out of this Spark, in January 2009.

The result is an eight-song masterpiece where the transitions between songs are seamless. This is not an album to be broken apart and shuffled amidst 800 other songs on your iPod; it’s an album to be savored in its entirety from start to finish. And it’s obviously grabbing the attention of some industry heavy weights. Early this summer Timber Timbre signed a global record deal with the Arts & Crafts label (the Stills, Constantines and Broken Social Scene), and the CD was reissued on July 28, 2009. The album was also named as a long-list nominee for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.

Over the summer Timber Timbre toured with the Great Lake Swimmers and Final Fantasy, and this autumn will see him headlining a handful of shows in the US. These shows are bound to be spellbinding especially if Taylor Kirk has his choice of venue. He has been known to choose specific venues that accentuate his atmospheric music.

Listen Up!

 

Discography: Timber Timbre (2009) * Medicinals (2007) * Cedar Shakes (2006)