We’re not sure if the Canadian Olympic Team is aware of this album, but the timing of the release is perfect: the direct center of the winter season and the Winter Games. One can imagine the Olympians working out to the dance tracks, relaxing to the chill tracks, and basking in the reminders of home.
John Beltran (Placid Angles) visited Canada last year and was captivated by its people and natural beauty. Canada is inspired by its vast forests and mountains, glaciers and streams and is a love letter to the people who live there. Blair French’s watercolor art conveys a sense of cold, but also of peace: an undisturbed untouched glacial pool, as seen from above.
We’ve been enjoying the three singles for months, so it’s a joy to hear them in context. The LP launches gently with “Saint Anne,” which features guitar and piano, and surprisingly, no drums. Ebullient, wordless female voice wafts through the sonic pines. It’s a gorgeous introduction, like the journey to Canada, the anticipation of nature, the first sight of the majestic peaks. Even when the rare lyrics do enter (courtesy of Sophia Stel on “I Want What I Want”), they wash over the listener like water from a cool mountain stream. Rising out of “Saint Anne,” the piece holds back the percussion until the baseline has been established, finally springing forth to remind us of the artist’s club roots.
Many of the tracks hold surprises in their latter halves. The first arrives when shoegaze guitars, reminiscent of The Cure, are melded to the breakbeats of “We Cry With You,” a phantom limb of Beltran’s classic Beautiful & Bloom EP. But the loveliest shift is a more subtle development at the end of the mesmerizing title track. This eight-minute piece, the album’s longest, casts a spell on the listener akin to that of The Craven Faults on this year’s other standout electronic set, Tidings. Each artist underlines the effectiveness of patient composition; in “Canada,” six minutes pass before an astonishing ambient shift deepens the emotional impact.
After this, the transportive moments keep coming. The time-stretched vocal loops of “Reminds Me of the Rain” hang in the air like contrails, setting up a perfect contrast with “Sun,” introduced by flute lines that precede the return of the beats, symbolizing the braking of the clouds. The cut first appeared as a bonus track on 2022’s Touch the Earth Remixes, but has found a welcome home here; even in the heart of winter, one can feel the apricity. Guest appearances from Tom VR and Yushh aid the density of the album’s back half, which has come far from its ambient beginnings. As the latter’s “Wildfire” winds down, it exposes its peaceful underbelly, while closer “Sweet Morning Dream” shimmers and vibrates, returning the listener to a state of calm.
Equally suited to dancing or relaxing, traveling or staying at home, Canada is a joyful addition to John Beltran’s impresive oeuvre, pairing beautifully with The Season Series EP: Winter. Beltran’s music has always conveyed a sense of wonder, and Canada leads the listener to look past the wind and the cold to appreciate the beauty of a frozen field. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 