If you were to ask someone what music is, right-brained individuals may give an answer like “vibrations in the air,” while a left-brained person may give a reply akin to “sound with magic all its own.” Both would be correct, but it’s hard to deny that music is truly at its best when we first describe it as the latter.
Halifax singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Andrea Cormier takes this to its purest form on her album Creatures of Illusion, speaking absolute magic into the universe over the span of the 8-track ensemble, with her lush instrumentals weaving her gentle dream of a sound all together.
“When I first moved from Montreal to Halifax in 2018, I experienced a sense of quietude I hadn’t felt in a really long time, which I guess ultimately resulted in what could be called a burst of creativity,” says Cormier. “Readjusting to life in the Maritimes was inspiring and healing in many ways – it felt like I was finally able to slow down, reflect, and observe.”
“I spent a lot of time just observing – how the seasons change here, how different the light is, how people interact with each other.”
Nostalgia overflows from the album to the point where it could very well be the source of the concept; a good many of Cormier’s tunes would fit right in to a soundtrack for ancient historical fiction. “Turquoise” in particular brings a medieval backdrop to mind, while the vast remainder of Cormier’s tracks, armed to the bones with her otherworldly cadence and magnetic melodies, have the power to conjure memories you weren’t previously aware of. “For Those Of Us” is perhaps the cardinal example of this, with Cormier’s voice taking the stage all on its own save for background harmonics; the emotional heights that music is capable of breaking is truly awe-inspiring, and Cormier is perhaps one of the best for the job.
On the other end of the bells-and-whistles spectrum is “Sea Spells,” Cormier’s latest single and album’s standout track. With a 12-string guitar and a vintage synthesizer, offering to supplement the already mesmerizing Cormier, “Sea Spells” is Cormier at her melodic peak, capable of firing one’s emotional comfort to the top of the world.
Having released two EP’s with psychedelic rock band Beachglass in 2017 and 2018, Creatures of Illusion is Cormier’s first album as a solo artist, and her choice to draw inspiration from elements of psychedelic music has proven to be a phenomenal one. Wherever Cormier goes, magic is sure to follow.