In honor of Satisfaction Month, Atwood Journal has invited artists to take part in a collection of essays reflecting on identification, music, tradition, inclusion, and extra.
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Right this moment, Toronto-based queer post-rock collective Lengthy Department replicate on their collaborative ethos, political urgency, and the connective energy of sound within the lead-up to their new album ‘Arc of the Solar,’ curating a playlist that honors the artists and communities who form their world for Atwood Journal’s Satisfaction Month collection!
Lengthy Department (composed of Sally Lee, Lisa Myers, Laura Pitkanen, and Don Pyle) is a music, sound and indie rock collective that composes and performs site-responsive music, experimental sound, and rock exhibits. As an indie rock band, Lengthy Department embraces their roots in punk, riot grrrl, and DIY communities. The band has carried out at Lengthy Winter and Wavelength festivals, on the Nationwide Music Centre, Calgary; Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition; Rolstan Recital Corridor on the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Ontario Place Trillium Stage; amongst different music venues in Toronto, Montreal, and past. Lengthy Department launched a 7″ report in 2016 that grew to become a Spill Journal “Monitor of the Day.” Their 2018 debut full-length report Discovered the Setting Solar is described as a “wildly achieved debut” by CBC’s Andrea Warner, and “a extremely really helpful album from a gaggle to be careful for” by Ugly Pop Data.
Lengthy Department additionally does website responsive, experimental sound performances. Lengthy Department composed and carried out an interpretation of Raven Chacon’s American Ledger (No. 1) at Kitchener-Waterloo Artwork Gallery and took part in music and sound residencies on the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In 2024, Lengthy Department did a 12-hour reside durational efficiency at Agnes Etherington home from dawn to sundown embracing the celestial precision of the spring equinox as a musical rating. Recorded by Jon Drew, parts of this reside efficiency shall be launched as a full-length vinyl and digital recordings in 2026. Their new album ‘Arc of the Solar’ shall be launched independently July 11, 2025.
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by Lengthy Department
Long Department is a four-piece, Sally Lee on bass, Lisa Myers on guitar, Laura Pitkanen on guitar and lead vocals, and Don Pyle on drums, and we’ve been constructing sound collectively for eleven years. You may hear it in the best way our songs unfold: Sluggish-burning, intentional and rooted in our belief in one another. Supportive, queer knowledgeable, do-it-together methods of making are core to Lengthy Department kindling new songs, sound performances and albums. Individually we’re artists, researchers, cultural staff, and writers and a lot extra. Our songs carry the form of who we’re, and the way we present up for one another. Collectively, we created this playlist of songs by musicians we admire, artists whose sound waves transfer via us, have an effect on us, encourage us. We need to share that have with you and on this small manner, additionally present up for them.
Emphasizing mutual help in a music scene can also be a part of our ethos and our inventive course of. From placing collectively a present, to writing a track, to creating an album – we collaborate. Laura brings in complete songs most frequently, with Lisa and Don contributing songs for collaboration and experimentation then Sally gives her attuned ear for nuance in our preparations. Everybody writes their very own elements as we construct the ultimate layers and construction of our songs. By lively listening and trustworthy suggestions each thought is tried, some work, some don’t, however the course of helps us uncover what finest serves to form each bit into what we really feel is a Lengthy Department track. Finally, our music creation course of is pushed by dedication to neighborhood and dealing as a collective.
We’re sharing this playlist within the weeks main as much as the discharge of our new album, Arc of the Solar, on July 11. On this charged political second, we acknowledge that our dedication to neighborhood is extra important than ever. As we witness excessive violence in occupied lands, every day political protests around the globe, the erosion of authorized rights for IBPOC and 2SLGBTQ communities, and the continuing efforts of social justice actions to amplify collective voices, we come collectively in reflection.
Arc of the Solar was born in the course of the lockdown period, which was a time when isolation step by step gave solution to reconnection with family members and with one another. In making this album, we took time to return to the intimacy of making music collectively. Co-producer and engineer Jon Drew at Taurus Recording dedicated to our sound and to the venture. He tuned into what every of us introduced into the studio and he listened to our enjoying kinds, the textures of our amps and results, our distinctive musical approaches to assist us produce this album.
Whether or not we’re working via songs, movies, album designs, reside exhibits or sound performances we’ve trustworthy conversations about what finest serves the work. Creating music collectively means genuine emotional outputs and partially this comes via figuring out one another effectively. From this course of of creating and creating, Lengthy Department has ripped into a brand new degree of sonic creation, at occasions uncooked, emotional, and unapologetically intense. Out of that connection, we’ve crafted one thing new: Arc of the Solar. We’re proud to share it, and hope you totally immerse your self in its resonances. – Lengthy Department
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:: join with Lengthy Department right here ::
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“Landing (It All Begins With)” – Lengthy Department
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📸 © Don Pyle
From Lengthy Department, with Love
