Fond of Tigers have been developing a complicated, beautiful sound
since 2003. Featuring seven of Vancouver’s leading creative musicians, Fond
of Tigers play a layered, nuanced
music that explores musical possibilities ranging from the smallest gesture of
extended technique, to the full avant-rock bombast possible with a wild,
double-drumkit-led septet.
Although admitting that “jazz purists will find
little to comfort them”, Coda magazine named the group’s debut recording, a
thing to live with (Drip Audio) “one of the best releases of 2006”. In just under 50 minutes the band (variously
described in print as "compelling", "eclectic",
"transcendent", "hypnotic", and "post-everything") showcased their visceral combination of meticulous
odd-time composition and improvisational abandon, resulting in a sometimes
confusing, always exhilarating ordered chaos. Downbeat Magazine called it “spellbinding” and “remarkably vital”.
Fond of Tigers’ second album, Release the Saviours was an ambitious and focused synthesis of mathy
freakouts, off-kilter jazz, ambient sound sculpture, abstract improvisation,
and a rare feel for making music that is both challenging, and highly
listenable. It’s what one writer called “beacon of hope in a year plagued by
…
Fond of Tigers have been developing a complicated, beautiful sound
since 2003. Featuring seven of Vancouver’s leading creative musicians, Fond
of Tigers play a layered, nuanced
music that explores musical possibilities ranging from the smallest gesture of
extended technique, to the full avant-rock bombast possible with a wild,
double-drumkit-led septet.
Although admitting that “jazz purists will find
little to comfort them”, Coda magazine named the group’s debut recording, a
thing to live with (Drip Audio) “one of the best releases of 2006”. In just under 50 minutes the band (variously
described in print as "compelling", "eclectic",
"transcendent", "hypnotic", and "post-everything") showcased their visceral combination of meticulous
odd-time composition and improvisational abandon, resulting in a sometimes
confusing, always exhilarating ordered chaos. Downbeat Magazine called it “spellbinding” and “remarkably vital”.
Fond of Tigers’ second album, Release the Saviours was an ambitious and focused synthesis of mathy
freakouts, off-kilter jazz, ambient sound sculpture, abstract improvisation,
and a rare feel for making music that is both challenging, and highly
listenable. It’s what one writer called “beacon of hope in a year plagued by
an excess of dull music”, helping the
late-year release make several annual best of lists, including Exclaim!
Magazine, Tiny Mix Tapes, CokeMachineGlow, and Germany’s Borderline Radio.
The group’s third album, Continent & Western (released by Drip Audio on September 21, 2010),
garnered a 2011 Juno Nomination
(ceremony to be held March 27th, 2011), and further critical
acclaim. Simultaneously more experimental and more accessible than previous
Fond of Tigers releases, the album shows the band honing its unique blend of
avant-garde textures and post-rock structures while expanding its range to
include vocals and additional members. Toronto’s Sandro Perri (Constellation Records) lends vocals and lyrics to
“Vitamin Meathawk”, while Swedish experimenter Mats Gustafsson brings his intense saxophone and electronics push to
“Grandad”. Bandleader Stephen Lyons also takes the microphone for the lush,
unhurried closing track, “Upheaval”. Exclaim! Magazine said of the album: "Fond Of Tigers vacillate
between minimal washes of sound and gales of loudness that incorporate jazz,
rock, European classical and electronic accents in grand, sweeping ways."
The group has performed at the 2006 through 2010
editions of the Vancouver Jazz Festival, Toronto’s Music Gallery,
The Guelph Jazz Festival, Sled
Island Music Festival, Suoni per
il Popolo, LOLA Festival, the New Forms Festival, and the Festival de Musique Actuelle de
Victoriaville, collaborated with
Sandro Perri, Mats Gustafsson, and Secret Mommy, and shared stages with
Deerhoof, Shad, Owen Pallett, the Grande Mothers, Tortoise, and others.
Fond of Tigers’ intense and idiosyncratic sound inhabits an undefined musical
territory somewhere in the outlands of avant-rock: “prog, post-rock, or jazz
-- whatever you want to call this, it rarely sounds this pretty, this
expressive, this emotional, this bracing.”
(CokeMachineGlow)
