Surface of Atlantic

Montreal is a beautiful city. For a native New Yorker like me, it's food and drink culture alone makes it an incredibly livable city. And for music, few cities can claim such fertility and diversity. I was there in September. Whenever I'm in a different city -- especially where I don't speak the local language, I enjoy a kind of physical/energetic/emotional displacement; a kind of poignant aloneness that isn't quite loneliness, but sometimes touches upon it. It's a sweet and a bit bitter, and totally alive feeling that penetrates bodymind. Walking the streets at night, this feeling can sweetly overwhelm.

This time, I made it to La Sala Rosa (and the fact that I was married in La Sala Rosa in the Palazzo Vecchio in Fierenze added a resonance to that for me) for the cd release of the latest cd from Surface of Atlantic, Fortunate Lives.

Maybe it was the fact that I was surrounded by folk speaking French; maybe it was the similarity of the room to rooms I've attended in NYC and in Amsterdam; maybe it was the two boiler-makers, but the sense of being alone in the midst of a swirling sea of sound, alone together with this room full of others heightened for me the magic of the music.

I'd never heard of the band, but I was mesmerized by their sound which seemed to wash over the room, enveloping us in this lush ocean which made me wonder if that's what's behind the fairly strange name: Surface of Atlantic.

The songs I've linked to here are actually from a previous cd, A Frame Per Season. If it's autumn where you live, I think you'll enjoy these as a soundtrack. Sit back, perhaps with a nice glass of cabernet or a smoky whiskey and let it wash over you.