Whitby, Ontario’s Tom Meikle, through Paper Bag Records, presented his debut album “A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone” under moniker Mappe Of. Lyrically, he populates the disc with an interesting gang of characters: a disturbed boy setting fire to his family’s home, a vagabond in Australia who’s disavowed all family ties, a Canadian youth figuring life out overseas, and an elder dying from Alzheimer’s who can’t recognize his family. Musically, the album is a dreamy, meta-dimensional sequence of alternative folk masterpieces. Mappe Of blends synthesizers with organic instruments including guitars (both acoustic and electric), trumpets, violins, kalimba, and autoharp. Where you allow this album to take you is entirely up to you; it’s filled with sonic magic.
The Canadian artist Mappe Of just released the two opening tracks of his debut’s album, A Northern Star, A Perfect Storm. With a sound that could easily remind to you of, James Vincent McMorrow or even a young Bon Iver, Mappe Of is all and none of them at the same time. A careful listen to Cavern´s Dark and Nimbin will reveal a unique sound that brings you to this ethereal, timeless atmosphere.
The sound is clear and well performed, almost minimalist. Guitar, violins, trumpets, it all helps to create these aural melodies. In his own words, “I’d like the music to be grounded in reality while simultaneously feel like it’s from somewhere else”. And he succeeds. Almost nothing for a debut album.
Trying to fit this young artist’s music in a genre can be certainly uneasy. Experimental, new indie, avant-folk… call it as you want, but you have to agree with me on this: it works.
The debut album from Mappe Of. A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone will be released on limited edition white vinyl on July 28th, 2017! Each vinyl pre-order will include a limited edition7″ of Mappe Of’s covers of ‘Pleasure’ (Feist) and ‘Dead Letter & The Infinite Yes’ (Wintersleep).
Paper Bag Record’s new bet is definitely worth a listen (or two). These two tracks are an invitation to a true sound experience. Trust me: you won’t be disappointed.
Mappe Of is a Canadian band with a sound that fits nicely between Bon Iver’s earliest acoustic work and that project’s later, more experimental sounds. The beautiful, finger-picked acoustic guitar and angelic vocals on this cut blend into an ethereal, transfixing trip.
A young Canadian piecing his life together on the other side of the world. A German vagabond clutching a glowing orb in a hippie town in Australia, having disavowed all family ties. An old man dying slowly of Alzheimer’s who can’t recognize his own family. A troubled boy burning his family’s home to the ground.
All these characters populate the debut album by Mappe Of, an ethereal avant-folk tour de force that belongs to no time or place. Or perhaps not even of this Earth, judging by the range of haunting vocal textures or some of the interstellar synths that intertwine with trumpets, violins, kalimba, autoharp, and Mappe Of’s own intricate guitar playing. There is no traditional drum kit. No finite template of instrumentation. Maybe the less you know about the man behind the curtain, the more you’ll lose yourself in the music. “I’d like the music to be grounded in reality while simultaneously feel like it’s from somewhere else,” says the sonic architect behind what will be known to the world as Mappe Of.
A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone is a sonic world unto itself, an aural landscape steeped in experience and imagination. “I love records so much,” he says. “The record has always been paramount to me. I want to create a setting in which you can lose yourself. The ideal record for me is one where you can lie back on your bed, listen to the thing front to back and be taken somewhere.”
A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone is out July 28th via Paper Bag Records
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