The Arcane Garden is a musical collaboration between Michelle Moss and William Chapman, who will be joined by special guests Marty Carter (winds) and Ben Johnson (percussion) at the Snoring Sasquatch on Nov. 30.
Moss has been singing, writing songs and performing for 20 years. Chapman has an extensive industry history: performing, producing, and/or engineering for various artists such as Strange Advance, D.O.A., Randy Bachman, Neil Young, and Long John Baldry.
After first connecting in Vancouver, the two relocated to the Kootenays, near Nelson, where they built a small project studio and now continue to explore their musical relationship.
The self-titled CD, The Arcane Garden, is their first offering, released independently in December 2008, containing 10 tracks of original music covering a wide range of genres: trip hop, downtempo, drum ’n’ bass, and ambient. Dig Deep was the second release, which included performances from guest musicians including the legendary Ellen McIlwaine. This offering provided even more diversity and intensity. Seed is their third release, once again including guest performances that expand the groups sound and sonic palette.
All the material is groove-oriented, deep, atmospheric and very heavily layered, featuring Chapman’s composition, programming, performance and production skills, and Moss’s evocative vocal (lyric and melody) expressions. Ongoing live performances feature Chapman on fretless bass, Moss singing, and a compliment of assorted live players providing additional live elements.
The Arcane Garden is receiving local airplay (Kootenay Co-op Radio) and has been approved for programming on at least two Internet radio streams produced by SomaFM in San Francisco.
The Arcane Garden’s live shows seem to consistently gain them very passionate new fans from across a very broad range of people. Perhaps this is because they have found a balance fusing modern music styles with haunting melodies and strong song structure.
Tickets are $8 in advance at Kingfisher Used Books, Black Bear Books and Buffalo Trails Coffee House, and $12 at the door, which opens at 6 p.m.; the show starts at 7.
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