BIO
When asked to explain the word “departure”, the common definition is “the act or an instance of departing”. It also can be interpreted as “setting out” or “starting a new course”. And so Vancouver-based composer, producer, and film scorer Taylor Swindells has returned after his own departure from his home city. The neoclassical artist, who releases under the pseudonym Neighborhood Libraries, swapped houses with another family in the Netherlands for an extended visit. He came back from the sojourn with a musically and emotionally rich new record, Departures. Lush and evocative, but also curious and searching, it examines tensions between the past, present and the future, as we face the consequences of human development and climate change. Swindells, a multi-instrumentalist who also formerly performed as the frontman of the appropriately named indie-rock group Tourist Company, gives us a surreal, yet serene, offering in Departures. The listener is surrounded by the ambience even as Swindells ponders the anxieties between what was, what is, and what could be.
Departures opens fittingly with “Amsterdam”, a nostalgic, haunting tribute to a past way of life. Next we listen to the music of Haarlem, and it is as if one has gone through a portal into another dimension; as the composer says, “Somewhere where the past and a liveable future seemed to collide in place.” “The Storm”, an emotionally moving piece with a sense of anticipation underneath the beautifully flowing musical strains, seems to suggest that something powerful is beginning. “Stedelijk” reflects Swindells’ experience with tensions between old habits and approaches to life, and who he strives to be as a decent human being. It speaks to him wanting to be better than he finds himself. “Keflavik”, similarly, addresses resolve, acceptance, and closure. The title track, “Departures”, is an ode to the composer’s anxiety; as a piece it is frenetic and building, like you’re constantly waiting for something that never materializes. It is a musical reflection of the struggle to do while not actually being able to do it.
In “Running Out of Time”, there is again the feeling of time slipping away, as the composer races through the hours and days in hopes of finding something more. The piece expresses the realization that he must learn not to be too impatient; to absorb how meaningful the present can be, if he gives it a proper chance. The theme of anxiety between what is, and what could be, continues with “Stejdlek Pt. 2”. But there is a sense of acceptance to be found in “Stejdlek Pt. 3”, in Swindells’ words, a “playful and hopeful” composition. This resolution continues with “Het Wed”, an ambient piece that conveys the feeling of a place that is settled, where everything is where it’s supposed to be. “Courtyards” reflects this found tranquility, and Swindells describes how “this piece escapes into a good book (even) while life keeps happening around it.”
The record in its entirety can be heard as a determination to find peace even when one’s surroundings are less than peaceful. Departures is dreamlike, inspirational, and thought-provoking, much as we have come to expect from its composer
MUSIC
