Horticultural Compass - The Apparition Of Bees (Jewelled Antler, 2005)

1 Plant Navigations, Part I
2 Moss Urn
3 The Primeval Glaze
4 Trilobites
5 The Grasslands
6 Plant Navigations, Part II

A friend of mine recently said that he actually has been enjoying some of the Jewelled Antler side-projects even more than some of the 'main' stuff recently. I am not really sure I agree on that, but what such a statement proves is that this loosely knit group of San Francisco-based musicians continues to be able to churn out exceptional music at the drop of a coin into a hat.

In the shape of Horticultural Compass (Samara Dun, Rob Reger, Donovan Quinn, Buffy Vice Sick & Glenn Donaldson) we get ceremonies of celebratory string massage, layered field recordings, swirling drones, beautifully plucked guitar plus the regular myriad of exotic instrumentation. The Apparition of Bees sounds distinctively Jewelled Antlerish but still quite unlike the other combos I?ve been fortunate to treat my ears with. Sometimes they border the haunting realms of Thuja?s improvised music, in others we get a glimpse of the Franciscan Hobbies? caterpillars of majestic oak beauty and at the most melodious and structured we get to experience a similar kind of slightly bent, mellow organic psychedelia as Glenn Donaldson does under his various tree monikers.

There's a loose and highly improvised approach to drones and quietly tinkling noise present here, and what makes it work so successfully is that the band just lets things wander wherever it?s natural to go next. I wouldn?t yet place this dark, slowly unfolding aural mystery up there with the best work of Thuja or the Franciscan Hobbies, but I wouldn?t be surprised if that has changed the next time we get to hear these guys.
Foxy Digitalis

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The Franciscan Hobbies- At The World's End (PseudoArcana, 2002)

1 Omens From Birds (4:36)
2 Centaur Envy (3:46)
3 The Black Chimes (4:34)
4 Seekers In Darkness (3:31)
5 The Unicorn Murders (6:24)
6 False-Hearted Love (7:43)
7 Echippus (0:43)
8 Table Of Figures (2:53)
9 Secret Of The Rose Window (5:10)

Le collectif Jewelled Antler sous une des ses incarnations les plus free...

The Franciscan Hobbies are one of the more anarchistic manifestations of the Jewelled Antler 'collective', The Hobbies themselves being a free-form, free-wheeling group of variable membership that turns idyllic nature excursions into documents of magical, improv folk psych. At The World's End comes by way of New Zealand cd-r label PseudoArcana, and this time around The Hobbies include 3 of the 4 members of Thuja, plus a bunch of their friends, including Donovan Quinn (Skygreen Leopards), Greg Bianchini (The Muons), and Cole Palme (Factrix). However, whoever's present on this recording isn't all that important, as they meld into a very relaxed communal music-making clan. Furthermore, discussion of instruments and techniques would seemingly convey less of a sense of what the Hobbies sound like than more poetic allusions to damp moss and dry leaves. Imagine napping in the undergrowth of a forest, dreaming drones and fractured melodies. Theirs is a drifting, indirect music, more hints and haunts than songs per se. And, we ask, how can you not love a record with a track entitled "The Unicorn Murders"??
Aquarius Records

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Verdure - The Telescope Dreampatterns (Camera Obscura, 2004)

1 Into The Blacktrees (2:03)
2 The Coffin Splits In Two (3:40)
3 The Greentrees (3:41)
4 Moonlanding (2:31)
5 Seeing The Telescope Dreampatterns (2:04)
6 Birds That Come Back Again (2:33)
7 Softly, The Embers (4:29)
8 Fluttering Pastures (1:42)
9 The Sea Funeral (4:17)
10 Ash-Wednesday (2:46)
11 Graveyard Porchlight (3:54)

Donovan Quinn, sous son pseudonyme de Verdure, réédition d'un cdr fait pour les amis par Camera Obscura, folk psychédélique prenante: guitare psyché, vagues d'orgue Hammond, tambourins tremblotants, flûtes diverses et variées, paroles peuplées d'arbres, d'oiseaux, de vin, ... avec un léger regard vers le côté sombre...

Verdure is often lumped in with the slew of bands and projects housed under the Jewelled Antler umbrella. This is an understandable mistake, but Verdure is the solo vehicle of Skygreen Leopards member, Donovan Quinn. The similarties to the Skygreen Leopards are numerous; both play psychedelic tinged acoustic pop music, and both write songs that are gloriously catchy and melodic. But Verdure is a lonelier project than the Leopards. Quinn gets to play the role of iron-fisted tyrant as whatever he says, goes. Let's all be thankful for fascism in solo music, because the results here are magnificent. Quinn's father was the bass player in the seminal psychedlic outfit, Country Weather, and his influence is audible all over this record.

"The Telescope Dream Patterns" is the first in two reissues by Camera Obscura of albums Quinn released himself. With fantastic cover art provided by Dream Magazine's George Parsons, this is a damn good start. In terms of the aesthetic here, the word that keeps coming to mind is ethereal. With Quinn's distinct twang leading the way, these songs feel like they're constantly moving and floating in towering cumulous clouds. Employing instrumentation ranging from acoustic guitars to organs to makeshift percussion to various flute-type instruments. The point is that "The Telescope Dream Patterns" variety of instrumentation gives the album rich, dense textures. Aural stimulation is a constant in Verdure's music.

There's a delightful combination of bright, sunshine-flavored guitar tones and darker, more melancholic sounds that gives this album a filmlike quality. "Moonlanding" has all the innocence of America before the Vietnam War. "Well I'm gonna build a home in the sky," Quinn sings as the song opens with keyboard chords and clippity-clop percussion that reminds me of "Horse With No Name." When the instrument expands to include acoustic guitar and electric bass, this song is swimming in grassy green fields under rainbow canopies. This is an album full of vivid color. As the song abruptly ends, we are greeted with a sample from the Firesign Theatre talking about Christians in medieval times. It's a bizarre way to end an upbeat track, but perfectly exemplifies the dichotomy that exists all over the album.

Verdure also has a number of instrumental pieces on "The Telescope Dream Patterns" which complete the whimsical, ethereal mood. The title track layers organ, acoustic guitar, and a lead guitar riff that is drowning in reverb and distortion. It's like taking a bunch of acid and wandering through a forest full of hibernating trees during a foggy night. There's a vague sense of direction, but mostly you can't help but stare at the colorful hallucinations the drugs are creating. A reprise of the same Firesign Theatre sample at the end really adds to the acid-soaked atmosphere of this piece. A lot happens in the two minutes of this track; it's excellent.

The random samples don't stop with "Moonlanding." On "Ash Wednesday," another instrumental piece, we are greeted by the voice of T.S. Eliot. Whining guitars and punches of high-pitched flute squeal give this track a slight Eastern tinge. This track takes the acid hallucinations heard on the title track and turns them up to 11. I feel like a team of psychologists is drilling a hole in my skull to get a good look at my brain. The way this piece swirls around the listener's head is wonderfully disorienting.

Two sister tracks, "Into the Blacktrees" and "The Greentrees" both have a somber quality to them. While Quinn sings, "I watched you take off your dress, and lay yourself in the open the road. I didn't know if I should eat your flesh, or if I should pray for you soul," the music underneath sounds like a hundred trapped ghosts trying to escape from their metal coffins. There is something equally beautiful and cathartic about this song. "I woke up from the dream, and your twin was laying in my bed. I remembered how sweet life was again, and you kissed me on the head," he concludes at the end. I love how this track goes from dark and formidable to hopeful in an instant. "The Greentrees" has a different melancholy to it. It's a dreary, rainy day in April. It's that moment when you feel completely stranded and the only thing to give you hope is to look toward the future and hope your life follows the path you've concocted in your head. "You know some things, they could be worse," Quinn echoes as he embraces these sentiments. Droning church bells hide below the layers of acoustic guitars. All of this together makes this one of the best Verdure tracks I've heard.

One of the best songs on "Telescope Dream Patterns," and perhaps the track most reminiscent of The Skygreen Leopards, is the hauntingly catchy "Birds That Come Back Again." Walls of watery flutes and hammond organs hold the soft, acoustic guitars tightly within their confines. Quinn's slightly distorted vocals are the main focus here, but they would lose their power without the shimmering mountains of sound underneath. The other track that reminds me a lot of his work with The Skygreen Leopards is the '60s-style psych-pop gem, "The Sea Funeral." As one of the longest songs on the album, it leaves one of the longest lasting impressions. This is the soundtrack to a jubilee, not a funeral. It's upbeat nature will have you tapping your foot from the beginning, and the ascending bassline is loaded with hooks. "Birds and trees make the beautiful noise," Quinn bellows as the track moves into a thicket of distorted guitars and more hypnotic lead guitar layers. This is nothing short of spectacular. I'm sure this music would make his father proud.

If there is such a thing as essential listening, Verdure is near the top of that list. Donovan Quinn constantly gets mentioned in the same breath as the Jewelled Antler not just because of his assocation with Glenn Donaldson in The Skygreen Leopards. His music has the same organic, psychedelic quality to it that has endeared many listeners to all things JA-related. The difference, though, is that Quinn chooses to focus on melody and structure moreso than improvisation. Few artists come to mind with Verdure's ability to capture the spontaneity of a single moment in such a controlled setting. This is an excellent record, and with the upcoming reissue of "October Lanterns," the Verdure catalog is only going to get better. Brad Rose Foxy Digitalis (25 May, 2005)

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Donovan Quinn - October Lanterns (Puissant, 2007)

1 October Lanterns (3:12)
2 Blackbird Headchamber (4:13)
3 The Guttering Flame (3:19)
4 At The Tent Revival (1:20)
5 One Thousand Matchsticks (3:39)
6 Saw A Ghost On The Water (3:32)
7 The Crooked Smile Of A Jack-O-Lantern (1:29)
8 Along The Hollies (2:19)
9 Miner (3:23)
10 October Lanterns (1:07)

Premier album réalisé sous son propre nom, après sa participation aux Skygreen Leopards et l'utilisation du pseudo Verdure, grand disque de folk....

Sean Penn's Into the Wild would have been a much better movie if, for its soundtrack, Penn had replaced Eddie Vedder by Donovan Quinn. For the ten tracks on October Lanterns show just the right degree of hinterwaldlerdom without ever venturing too far off the beaten track. Sure, when Quinn recorded these fine songs in '02 and '03, he used a wide array of folk instruments. But whether hammond organ, melodica, mouth harp, or mandolin: They all blissfully sound as if the still wore the price tag of the music supply store. That, however, is not a problem at all, but provides track like At the tent revival with an awkward quality not to be found elsewhere.

Recorded at his former home studio on a horse ranch in Walnut Creek, CA, October Lanterns is Quinn's debut under his own name. He has recorded with The Skygreen Leopards and solo under the Verdure moniker. This cd-r, limited as it is to 100 copies, should help him to get established further in a field ruled by the likes of Hala Strana or Hush Arbors. There are plenty of good folk songwriter tunes out there, but Donovan Quinn's strange ability to end all the songs before they seem to even have begun, to hint at unforgettable melodies without ever fully delivering them, to allow strumming glimpses of golden indie pop songs without ever leaving the experimental field ? all of this should see Donovan Quinn become a regular fixture in the field. In fact, it's difficult to see why this is only a limited cd-r release. There's so much stuff getting a regular release that isn't half as good. Unfortunately, October Lanterns might already be pretty hard to find. It's well worth tracking down, though.

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The Once & Future Herds - Lion-Colored Hills (Pseudo Arcana, 2005)

Locust Parade (0:52)
Ranch Rags (7:09)
Who Will Weep For The Sparrow? (1:41)
Wild Blue Air (4:42)
New Hills (3:38)

To feel the sun, you must leave your home. To taste the sun, you must leave your mind. The Once & Future Herds are another tree in the Jewelled Antler forest. Comprised of Glenn Donaldson, Donovan Quinn, and Loren Chasse, the Herds run rampant in fields of bluegrass while spelunking through golden caves. Organic acoustic instruments are strummed and plucked with branches and twigs while the merrymen dance around, praying for God to bring rain to their tongue. "Ranch Raga" is an appropriately titled hypnotic dirt affair. One can just see a group of gnomes sitting on a porch in Montana, playing music, whimsically singing as their horses graze the green fields. Chasse contributes some of his trademark percussion, using whatever natural elements could be found. He could be rattling a bag of bones for all I know, it's all a part of these ritualistic passages. Masked men serenade dancing women, arming them with hope for a new dawn on "Wild Blue Air." Donaldson's falsetto follows his bouzouki on this journey, while rustic violin scratches tow the line. The Once & Future Herds aren't dead or alive, they are feasting on the land like those that came before them. Another Jewelled Antler gem.

Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis

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