When Michael Feuerstack set out to record his now 5th album under his own name, he had big things in mind. Unfortunately, like many who had plans for 2020, things changed. What was supposed to be an upbeat record with many musicians in a studio became a record that could not have strayed further from what he had planned from the beginning.
“The term ‘pivot’ has really been abused this year, but I really can’t think of a more poetic word to describe how this record came to be,” writes Feuerstack in a blog post commemorating the album’s release.
When plans fell through for his initial idea, he fell back on an entirely different group of songs and began recording alone in his Montreal apartment. Every instrument you hear on Harmonize the Moon was played by the man himself. From those apartment sessions emerged a celestial and ambient collection of tracks that can’t help but awaken the existentialist in us all.
Feuerstack himself describes the record as “the product of some beautiful alone time,” and that sentiment certainly holds true upon listening. The record is undeniably intimate, and Feuerstacks’ often bassy and billowing vocal performance throughout only heightens the experience.
I don’t use the word “celestial” for no reason either. Aside from the quite obvious lunar reference in the album’s title, Feuerstack doubled down thematically by diving into the cosmos with the opening lines of the project’s opening track “I Used to be a Singer”:
“I used to be a singer,
Bumping around in the astral plane,
Picking up astral trash,
to polish it up again,
Drifting like a shell”
There’s no question that Feuerstack has solidified himself as a capable and captivating songwriter over his many years in the industry, and Harmonize the Moon does nothing if not emphasize this point. From the atmospheric and catchy folk cuts like “Time to Burn” and the album’s titular track, “Harmonize the Moon,” to the quirkier, but still ever as thoughtful tracks like “Too Kind and Valley,” Feuerstack has continued to be a powerhouse in the Canadian indie scene and has yet to show any signs of slowing down.
As far as the album that was to be, it has yet to be made. However, the Juno award-winning group Bell Orchestre, of which Feuerstack is a member, reunited for their first new record since 2009, House Music, which also released on March 19th of 2021.