Music Review // Andrew Weathers Ensemble "The Thousand Birds in the Earth, The Thousand Birds in the Sky" (Full Spectrum Records)

https://fullspectrumrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-thousand-birds-in-the-earth-the-thousand-birds-in-the-sky //

Horns come fluttering in, a perfect jazz number.   It's a wild ride and then the vocals kick in, making me think we are in the mountains for some reason.   There is a calm power to this sound.   It's not just because it's in the title (but it is) that I feel like we should be out in nature somewhere while listening to this.   Could the Andrew Weathers Ensemble perform in the middle of the woods with only the select few making the hike to see it?   As the bass line drops, there are keys and percussion now which take the initial sound to another level.  

This music is trippy.  It feels like you could get lost in the woods listening to it and have an experience.  That being said, I really don't feel like this is the type of music to listen to while driving (especially during long drives) because it could be distracting.   It feels like the type of sound where you could rather easily find yourself hypnotized by it and then forget you are even driving.   But as these horns kick in towards the end of the first song- those deep, deep horns- I really feel like I want to drive.

On the second track we open with this video game sounding xylophone trill.   Strings emerge from behind this in an expansive way.    The singing returns and that trill now feels like an S.O.S.     This song is about dreams and dads and it just feels like something you would listen to while wandering but perhaps not while lost.    Keys come in now which just make it feel intergalactic.    Then a darker drone comes through this feeling of magic.    This also might not be the point of this song but it makes me think about how I've visited places in dreams more than one time yet in reality they don't exist.   Isn't that odd?

The twists and turns of synths bring in harmony and the third track begins with quite a pleasant feeling.   Through smooth grooves, this song somehow becomes hypnotic just as well as it is like a fun trip through clouds trying to catch the sun.    The vocals begin to feel robotic as we feel like we're fading out, listening to words like "the cruelness of everything" and they just really resonate with me.   This song can just put you in such a trance to where you feel like you're taken to a different place.

The final song begins with keys and delicate string plucks.   Little bursts of static and synth come through and this just feels like such a fragile song.    Quiet and softer, it feels as if the sound might kick in at any moment but it remains this slow, music box type of vibe.   Then this rambling guitar sound joins in on the left side and it just feels like we're really drifting.   As we near the end of the song- definitely on the second half here- the vocals come in and it still just feels like we're going to take off into space.