Tracklisting: Ask The Community Mystery Street Stops Confessions of Dr. Woo 800 Pristine Corpses Sugar Land Holy Motors Lovage Six years after their last studio album, Taylor Kirks Canadian band Timber Timbre has finally announced a new record "Lovage" - their most accomplished and engrossing album to date, set for release October 6th via [Integral]. The lead single, "Ask The Community, is out today alongside a music video. Since releasing and extensively touring Sincerely, Future Pollution (2017), Taylor Kirk has been busy working as a producer on several full-length LPs, including Joseph Martones Honeybirds and the sophomore recording Nightshades by This Lonesome Paradise. Timber Timbre have quietly released two cassette-only EPs, I Am Coming To Paris and The Dissociation Tapes Volume 1. Finally returning with a new full-length entitled Lovage, the most accomplished and engrossing Timber Timbre album to date. Which isnt to say that Taylor Kirk has merely refined his working methods. In fact, Lovage is a bona fide masterpiece, as Kirk manages to combine disparate influences that would otherwise seem mutually incompatible. Together with producer-engineer Michael Dubue, he reconciles Brian Wilsons rich sonic palette with the amused melancholy of Leonard Cohen. When asked about these influences Taylor admits these are certainly touchstones. Brian Wilson and Leonard Cohen are among many influences that have come to embody what music is to me. Kirk admits to revisiting Sun Ra, Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, as well as Italian singers such as Pino Daniele and Paolo Conte, which might explain the cinematic lightness of the new album. When asked about The Velvet Underground he replied reluctantly I wouldnt say that I sound like Lou Reed, Kirk explains. But I also aspire to the leanness that he brings to his lyrics and storytelling. Another connection to Lou Reed is the wry humor that is always present in Timber Timbres work, despite the social commentary prevalent in the new songs, such as the album opener Ask The Community. Im glad if the humor comes across, Kirk says. "Its not always recognized, but having said that, Im not always sure when Im joking myself." The electronic elements that characterized Timber Timbres previous album, Sincerely, Future Pollution" make a return on Lovage, albeit with a more discrete confidence. That album became something of a genre study, sitting slightly outside Timber Timbres sonic trajectory, he explains, as I didnt really have a history with electronic music then. It was very laborious and much more contrived. Whats different about this album is that its much more spontaneous than Sincerely, Future Pollution or any of my previous recordings, for that matter. Kirk developed Lovage in close collaboration with Michael Dubue at the producers Studio Cimetire in Quyon, Quebec. Michael originally invited me to come and contribute to a song he was working on, Kirk explains, Because we really hit it off, we ended up putting a whole album together from the song ideas Id been collecting during a couple of housebound years, recovering from a long period of unsavory touring habits and reform from an unhealthy lifestyle. The collaboration proved so fruitful that Michael Dubue has joined Timber Timbre on keyboards and vocals with Adam Bradley Schreiber completing the current line-up on drums and percussion. Michael is much more musically accomplished than I am, Taylor continues. While Ive often felt limited by my own ability in the past, Mike helped out when I found myself hitting a wall or writing myself into a corner. He often comes up with ideas Id never have thought of on my own or couldnt execute instrumentally. Kirk returned to his native Ontario in 2019 after spending a few years in Quebec and Texas. He made it back just in time to sit out the Covid pandemic and regroup. I moved back to Ontario where I had grown up, a place I left 20 years ago and swore Id never return to. Holy Motors is an homage to this place I love and hate - but also love to hate," he says of the town where he spent the lockdown. "But its a good place to be trapped". One could say the same of the sonic landscapes he evokes on "Lovage": Its a wonderful album to be trapped on, a modern masterpiece for troubled times one will find oneself returning to again and again. *** In addition to the album and single announcement, Timber Timbre has also shared details of their Ontario run in July. This will be a rare chance to catch the new band lineup in very intimate local venues as they develop the new Lovage repertoire live and experiment with new renditions from the back catalog.