Street date: 2009-05-18

This is the wondrous debut record from Clues. Co-founders Alden Penner and Brendan Reed have been quietly nurturing this project in Montreal since the demise of their respective bands, Unicorns and Les Angles Morts. As a member of the short-lived Unicorns, Penner's song-writing prowess was unveiled in a bright burst of mysterious and kaleidoscopic energy, in the form of a single full-length album (released in 2003) and countless live shows, both of which rallied passionate responses from audiences and critics alike. Penner's voice, guitar and unique lyrical vision now guide Clues, with humble authority, originality and intent. Wedded to Reed's own superlative compositional and arranging acumen (and awesome drumming, among other instrumental skills) and abetted by multi-instrumentalists Ben Borden (Les Automates de Maxime de la Rochefoucauld ), Lisa Gamble (Gambletron, Evangelista, Hrsta ) and Nick Scribner (Chaotic Insurrection Ensemble), the band delivered sporadic and fantastic local performances through 2008. They then entered the Hotel2Tango studio to lay down eleven songs in a feverish session during a Montreal winter deep freeze. The resulting album radiates a very special warmth and urgency, full of secrets, smiles, snarls and sing-a-longs.

Street date: 2009-05-18

Ringing For The Begin Again is a highly organic song cycle; the music sounds as if it had been dug up from dark, rich earth. Out of the opening drone and rustling ambient percussion of "The Bringer", Jordan evokes golem-like images in a series of descending vocal melodies, gradually joined by Emi's vocal counterpoint and a slowly evolving brew of instrumental layers, like a clay sculpture taking shape and hardening in dappled sunlight. "Running Sheep" is one of several fables sung by Emi in Japanese and demonstrates the band's sharper, more staccato melodic sensibility. Third track "Hammer Song" is a brilliant little ode to deconstruction and dismantling, an anthemic tune about the tension between restraint and resolve. Emi's ukulele and vocal lines on "Sakura" are perhaps most overtly evocative of her home country of Japan; as the song is overtaken by a clockwork of chiming acoustic guitar figures and chugging chords, and segues into the instrumental "Muskeg Parade", we're in the throes of a sort of east-meets- west miniature musicbox marching band. Side Two begins with the two-part "The Living Light", the album centerpiece and a secular hymn to rejuvenation by daylight, sunlight, exposure to the elements - perhaps as only dwellers of the upper latitudes can fully appreciate. In a way, the entirety of Ringing For The Begin Again feels forged directly out of the seasonal extremes of Canadian nature, with the instrumentation like a shelter of wood, moss, grasses and packed earth within which simple and cyclical rituals of invocation and parable can be shaped and intoned. Song after song emerges as if from a sort of hibernation, inscribing its own little portal and then breaking open through it, letting in the elements and harnessing them into harmonious coalescence.

Street date: 2009-03-09

Sam Shalabi's musical history spans rock, jazz, free music, punk, and most things in-between. A highly truncated list of his projects includes Shalabi Effect, Detention, Molasses, and Nutsak, along with several releases under his own name courtesy Alien8Recordings and Squintfucker Press. Land Of Kush, modeled on classical orchestras from late Nasser-era Egypt, Incorporates some 30 Montreal players and vocalists. Shalabi has described earlier hybrid compositional work as "protest music about Arabophobia" (Osama, 2003) after 9/11 and an attempt at modern Arabic pop (Eid, 2008) inspired by an extended stay in Cairo in 2006. Land Of Kush combines both of these impulses, to our ears, while also rallying Sam's long obsessions with psychedelic music (viz. Shalabi Effect) and epic literary fiction. Fearing that yet another ephemeral Shalabi masterpiece would be lost to all but a few esoteric live mini-disc recordings, Constellation helped Sam bring the Land Of Kush orchestra into a studio environment to document a hi-fidelity recording of the work. Inspired by and named after the Thomas Pynchon's novel Against the Day, the music is broken into five sections, named for the book's chapters. The three primary movements are centred around solo vocalists (Jason Grimmer, Molly Sweeeney, Radwan Moumneh) who independently composed their own lyrics for the piece. In between vocal performances, Shalabi gives the orchestra ample opportunity to strut its stuff between verses, including solos and long instrumental passages that display Sam's unique balance of composition and 'expository' or improvisational instruction. The marriage of middle-eastern, north African and western modes and influences yields a recording that evades categorization.

Street date: 2009-02-09

Empires Of Tin was officially presented at Viennale (The Vienna International Film Festival) in October 2008. This piece, inspired by Joseph Roth's novel The Radetsky March, is a meditation on the decline of empires, juxtaposing images from the twilight stages of the Hapsburg empire and WWI with footage from present-day Vienna and Cohen's hometown of Brooklyn, NY, where he traces his own visual meditations on the twilight of American empire. An impressionistic narrative is constructed through live readings from the texts of Joseph Roth, and a live musical score performed by Vic Chesnutt, members from The Silver Mt Zion, Guy Piciotto (Fugazi), and The Quavers. The music includes improvisations, wonderfully blown-out interpretations of Strauss' "The Radetsky March", and bracing renditions of a number of Vic Chesnutt songs. The result is a sort of agit-prop hallucination, a string of film vignettes bound by the poetry of Roth's writing and by the sounds and songs of the live musicians. This 2007 film performance was recorded (audio and video) by the Viennale. Video footage of the live event was then combined with Cohen's original film footage and edited in Vienna by Jem. The live audio was mixed at the Hotel2Tango in Montreal by some of the participating musicians. The resulting DVD is a politically charged and unique hybrid of concert and film - a document of a very special multi-media performance, and one hailed as one of the highlights of the Viennale. Empires Of Tin is being co-released on DVD by The Viennale and Constellation. It received it's premiere screening at the 2008 Viennale , and will be commercially released at the end of the year. The DVD is packaged in thick 6-panel cardstock digipack with a fold-out insert card that includes an essay by Jem Cohen.

Street date: 2008-08-25

Seattle-based band The Dead Science have created a majestic, ornate and soaring collection of post-punk avant-pop on this, their fourth full-length album, and their first for Constellation. Villainaire is a brilliant song cycle driven by layers of Sam Mickens’ vibrato- laden voice, dark lyricism and sterling guitar work. Bassist (acoustic and electric) Jherek Bischoff and drummer Nick Tamburro anchor the tunes with endlessly inventive polyrhythmic suppleness. Together the trio unleash a truly unique sound, intensely literate in both word and sound, with a controlled and commanding fury. The songs on Villainaire range from epic orchestral pop to sinister jazz-rock to weary, soul-bleached balladry. Sam Mickens writes about "moral pragmatism and experimental moral nihilism, black-out drunkenness and its psychic and emotional repercussions, and the continuum of baroque fantasy and stark reality" – all delivered with inimitable, seductive, and at times disturbing operatics. Fans of Shudder To Think, Scott Walker, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Blonde Redhead and/or US Maple should find deep and abiding pleasure in Villainaire.

Street date: 2008-08-25

Throne Of Blood (The Jump Off) indeed jumps out of the gate, with pumping bass and drum work, interwoven vocals and fantastic staccato syncopation - with a lovely deconstructed bridge featuring a brief modernist string arrangement. The song encapsulates many of the elements and influences that shape the rest of the new album’s compositions. As well as this single, The Dead Science is also set to tour tirelessly in North America and Europe from May until October 2008, with the album set for release in early September.

Street date: 2008-05-19

Sloppy Ground is Eric Chenaux’s strongest, most accessible and most dynamic work in years. We have long been champions of the man’s inimitable talents – as a songwriter, arranger and mind-bending guitarist – and this new album should make these talents clear to the nominally attentive listener. This is a collection of beautifully fried love songs, highly original in compositional approach and instrumental texture, utterly compelling in lyrical content and delivery.

Street date: 2008-03-10

16 tracks 59 minutes. Their first new album in 3 years! Crackling guitar crescendos, dive-bombing swirls of strings and wailing words of worry, hope and fury abound.

Street date: 2008-02-25

9 tracks 40 mins. The debut album from Carla Bozulich's new band with contributions from over a dozen Montreal players. Playful, sassy, rocking and reflective - a stunning debut.

Street date: 2007-10-08

The music on 'Ça Va Cogner' (or 'It's Gonna Hit') does not 'hit' but hopes rather to soften prevailing values. This collection of songs and ambiguous pieces is, like the siren's cry, an invitation to a voyage. From Haiti to Palermo by way of the Bermuda Triangle, this initiation trip traces the development of four entities (and maybe more) who seek the opening that will permit an escape from themselves, to confront the elusive outdoors. Faces masked by nylon, monsters confront the night that is woman, without quite knowing why. One thing is certain: even if they don't know where they're going, they go all the same.

Street date: 2007-09-24

10 tracks 42 minutes. A highly personal collection of songs, shaped by an utterly original approach to composition, performance, and melodic vocal phrasing. A tranquil journey.

Street date: 2007-09-10

9 tracks 42 minutes. A collection of gently foreboding psych folk, shifting tones, drones and sustained chordings. Eerie and atmospheric, it's the most focused Hrsta record to date.

Street date: 2007-08-27

Recorded over the winter of 2006-2007, at one of the last sessions to take place at the original Hotel2Tango location in Montreal (the studio moved in spring 2007), we believe 'North Star Deserter' is the very best album Vic Chesnutt has yet made (while humbly acknowledging the boldness of such a statement). The sessions were orchestrated by Jem, who also oversaw production (along with Efrim and Thierry of Silver Mt. Zion, and Guy from Fugazi). The album was recorded by Howard Bilerman.

Street date: 2007-02-12

In many ways the new album picks up where Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn left off - acoustic fingerpicked guitars are the recurring compositional anchor, with drums and percussion fluttering around these campfire themes while horns and electric guitars gather in swarms. The songs on You, You're A History In Rust develop like moths drawn to a flame, instruments tracing erratic circles around a flickering, elusive centre.

Street date: 2006-09-25

8 trks, 35 mins. Garage soul rave-up from Justin of Do Make Say Think and Katia Taylor - a far-reaching ambitious record of killer jams, barely controlled chaos and joyous abandon.

Street date: 2006-09-11

9 trks, 49 mins. Sublime album pairing up the Toronto song smith with collaborators Martin Arnold & Nick Fraser.Wistful thoughtful vocals, hushed guitars and fluid percussion.

Street date: 2006-09-11

5 trks, 27 mins. Sandro Perri is perhaps better known as the songwriter behind polmo polpo and Glissanro 70, here we have some expanded live band workouts and rippling improv bliss.

Street date: 2006-05-15

Carla came to Montreal to record the album at the Hotel2Tango in coldest wintertime, with multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily at her side, and a pocketful of beautiful noises and loops prepared back home in L. A. (along with some mandolin and viola by Ezra Buchla). Additional players include various players from the Constellation orbit (string players Thierry Amar, Jessica Moss and Sophie Trudeau, along with piano/organ player Nadia Moss). Efrim recorded the album and plays on several tracks as well.

Street date: 2006-04-17

5 trks, 41 mins. New project from members of Fly Pan Am, Shalabi Effect, Et Sans. An album of escalating urgent rock and raw experimentation. Think Tortoise meets Animal Col.

Street date: 2006-04-03

Nisht Azoy (Not Like This) picks up where 2004's Ver Tanzt left off- more percussion, a harsher sound, songs of love and war that stretch into extended sonic and lyrical areas.

Street date: 2006-03-06

Glissandro 70 is the result of two years of intermittent collaboration between Toronto's Sandro Perri (Polmo Polpo) and Craig Dunsmuir (Guitarkestra). Avail. on CD and 180gm LP

Street date: 2005-05-16

3 trks, 33 mins. A pure, direct and unflinching document on two timeless themes from Montreal-based Croatian singer-song writer Vajagic. Folk Noir judged betwixt White Magic + Galas

Street date: 2005-05-02

8 trks, 43 mins. Mike Moya's (gy!be, Molasses, Set Fire to Flames) newest project which conjures spooky portals of prog -folk-psyche + apocalyptic choral hymns from outsider noise.

Street date: 2005-04-18

10 trks, 43 mins. 3rd album from the Montreal drums-n-viola powerhouse. Gen's bows out a vortex of jigs, reels and air raid drones into Eric's polyrhythmic beats. Beautiful racket

Street date: 2005-03-21

Thee Mt. Zion's latest opus contains 6 busted waltzes for WWIV-VI. Their strongest release to date shows their full flourishing as a vocal driven protest music ensemble.

Street date: 2004-10-18

6 trks, 42 min. A dark + richly detailed work that invokes a dystopic environment where the natural + organic are at one with the detritus of military-industrial custom. Listen loud

Street date: 2004-09-06

14trks, 60mins. Silent Land boasts an exclusive, previously unreleased track by every band on the label's roster. This collection is a real treasure, housed in foil pressed card!

Street date: 2004-09-06

10 trks, 49 mins. Monolithic slab of trouble-dub, mind-meld noise incantation ala Boredoms, with stranger rhythmic exercises. Feat. electronic efforts from Tim Hecker +Alex St Onge

Street date: 2004-05-10

4 trks,30 mins. Mount Zion return with four brand new trac ks especially written to accompany their spring European tour. I swear there's a microphone in every tree!

Street date: 2004-04-26

13trks, 42mins. Mixing Klezmer, Balkan + Slavic folk idioms seamlessly with constellation ambience and russian/yiddish vox is no mean feat. Involves members of Sackville + ASMZ

Street date: 2004-03-15

7 trks, 42 mins. Elizabeth is from Montreal; daughter of Croatian immigrants. Her arresting vocal lending itself to folk noir here; expanding on her solo + Sam Shalabi projects

Street date: 2003-10-06

9 tracks, 52.02 minutes. Do Make Say Think's 4th album. A multi-styled affair from introspective guitars, through to grooves w/horn sections, passing by explosive celebrations.

Street date: 2003-09-22

New signing to Constellation! Toronto-based artist creates genre-busting album full of electronic wavefields, full-on dronescapes and a fully realized conceptual thread. Tune in.

Street date: 2003-08-25

4 tracks, 58 minutes. Third album. A much increased vocal presence including both group and solo work. A dense set of music yet still perhaps their most strongly melodic yet.

Street date: 2003-03-13

7 tracks, 48 mins. Second LP from Montreal rock band devoted to riffing and blissful repetition, with sublime dynamics & harmonies. Exquisite packaging with window-cut covers!!

Street date: 2003-03-03

Nine tracks, thirty-seven minutes. Frankie Sparo's eagerly anticipated second album. Lonely, desperate, aching tunes played with reserved melancholy.

Street date: 2002-11-04

Seventy four minutes. Three tracks split into five on the CD and 2 movements on the vinyl. First new material for two years.

Street date: 2002-10-07

Nine tracks, forty-seven minutes. Second album from this viola and drums, avant-punk duo. A truly mesmerising album.

Street date: 2002-09-09

Eight tracks, forty-five minutes. Exhaust's second album. Bass, drum & tape trio. Featuring Aidan (godspeed you black emperor! and 1-Speed Bike).

Street date: 2002-04-01

Eight tracks, forty-five minutes. Second album. Stuttering messed-up funk, recorded by thierry amar (godspeed you black emperor!).

Street date: 2002-03-18

Seven Tracks, forty-nine minutes. Third full length. Space and drone rock used as a launch pad for jazz experimentation with a healthy dose of melody thrown in.

Street date: 2002-02-18

Ten Tracks, sixty-five minutes. Documenting Constellation's first five years as a record label. Features one track from each artist exclusive to Constellation.

Street date: 2001-10-22

Eight tracks, sixty minutes. The Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-la-la band roll into town with a new album. Vinyl comes in a double 10 inch pack!

Street date: 2001-08-28

Four tracks, nineteen minutes. This special release for Constellation is taken from a VPRO radio session recorded on his recent tour with A Silver Mt. Zion.

Street date: 2001-05-21

Eight Tracks, Forty-four minutes. Debut release for this duo featuring members of Sackville, Pest 5000 and Shortwave. Mixture of musical experimentation and 1980s New Wave Pop!

Street date: 2001-04-23

Street date: 2000-11-06

11 songs 44m29s. Thrilling & mysterious debut. Dark & deconstructed take on lounge music featuring angular guitar, fine lyrical turns of phrase & a unique, oblique intimacy.

Street date: 2000-10-23

8 tracks, 36.43 Experimental techno alter-ego of Godspeed drummer Aidan Girt. An irreverent & ramshackle approach to the genre, with plenty of groove, humour, and poignancy.

Street date: 2000-10-23

3 songs, 29.38 New material from Montreal's premiere exponents of instrumental experimentation & cyclical repetition. Features Roger of Godspeed..! Groove to the anti-funk...

Street date: 2000-10-09

Double CD on Kranky, Double Vinyl on Constellation. 87.02 minutes. After two years of tireless touring, this is their first full length since 1998. Four seamless pieces of music

Street date: 2000-07-10

8 songs, 34 mins. Montreal band that features Aidan of Godspeed You Black Emperor! Ambient leftfield space rock with surprises that will appeal to fans of Aphex Twin et al.

Street date: 2000-03-13

8 trks, 47 mins. New project featuring three members of Godspeed YBE! is a piano-driven collage of ensemble pieces feat. strings, foundsounds, tapes, loops, drones & vocals.

Street date: 1999-10-18

First full-lengther from Montreal based instrumental quartet - think Godspeed jamming with "White Light White Heat" era Velvets and you'd be nearly half way there (or out there...)

Street date: 1999-06-07

Distilling a wide range of folk, rock, and avant influences, the bands 3rd record and their most accomplished to date. 10in features silk screened sleeve and insert. Gorgeous!

Street date: 1999-04-12

Exquisitely packaged in washed-chocolate brown cover, foil inked, debossed sleeve with hand-screened insert, on heavy vinyl. 2 tracks, 28 mins. CD on Kranky.

Street date: 1999-02-08

Montreal band on the label that gave the world Godspeed You Black Emperor. The music ranges from dense and relentless attacks to sparse, fragile, cathartic emotion. Top package!

Street date: 1998-11-02

8 tracks, 72 minutes! From the label that brought us godspeed you black emperor! comes swinging rhythms, reverbed guitar, horns & saturated synth. Dreamy smokey lounge music.

Street date: 1998-06-08

See listing under Kranky records also. This is the original release on their Canadian label. Thick card sleeve with b/w orig. photo. Several letter-press inserts. 140g vinyl. Nice!

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