By GAC Staff member Preetam Sengupta
Each month we’ll feature a video from one of Guelph’s musical community members. If you’re a musician and have a video you’d like us to feature, please send a YouTube link our way along with a short bio.
Happy New Year! Our Monthly Musical Member videos have had a bit of a hiatus these past couple of months, but we’re back now and ready for another year of introducing readers/viewers (or reacquainting them with) some interesting and outstanding local artists. This month’s video comes from someone many Guelph music enthusiasts will surely know in some capacity, but maybe not in the way we’re presenting his work today. Andrew McPherson is well-known as a producer, the founder of JUNO-nominated Eccodek, a solo artist, and a voice-over artist, but for our featured video today, we bring you a track from Andrew’s ambient music side project, under the name “Peppermoth”. A few months back, Peppermoth’s 4th album was released, and today’s video for the (cleverly-named) title track “Ventrilokissed” was released in December. Sometimes it’s what one leaves out of music that makes it even more compelling than what they’ve put in, and in this track, Andrew doesn’t crowd the soundscape, even leaving moments of silence that feel like a welcome space to breathe, complementing the visual beautifully. It seems to visit both past and future, reminding us of what will soon be and evoking a simultaneous sense of freedom, hope, familiarity, and connection.
Peppermoth (Andrew McPherson)
(From Six Degrees Records website) Canadian producer and artist Andrew McPherson returns to Six Degrees with Ventrilokissed, the 4th chapter of his ambient project Peppermoth. While it could easily be considered a ‘pandemic’ record, the quiet and intimate world Andrew creates could all be considered music made in isolation or solitude. Ventrilokissed is a nuanced and bejewelled sonic oasis built on a signature, less-is-more approach to instrumental music. Andrew weaves patient, melodic stories together to create an aural tapestry bringing neo-classical, dub, minimalism, jazz and of course, ambient influences under one roof. The album unfolds like a ballet score where dancers and actors perform in the mind’s eye, far away from a physical stage – and with our shared global experience of isolation in the background, the concept of a ‘ventrilokiss’ becomes a compelling metaphor for our desire to connect while separate. Could someone feel ‘ventrilokissed’ from afar?
You can learn more about Peppermoth as well as Andrew’s other projects by visiting andrewmcpherson.ca, where his music is also available for purchase. Normally in this section, we remind you about Bandcamp Friday, where our friends at Bandcamp were forgoing their portion of sales on the first Friday of each month. That promotion is no longer running, but Bandcamp is still a way for people to financially support their favourite artists while we patiently await a return to more performances and our chance to connect with them in-person.
Wishing you a wonderful start to 2022. Please enjoy “Ventrilokissed”.
*Note: Bandcamp has now announced that Bandcamp Fridays will return for the first Friday of February (4th), March (4th), April (1st) and May (6th).