Skeleton Trees

Bio

Photo by Brokenwood.

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Playing like a strange mix between the soundtrack of a David Lynch film and what would crawl into your mind after reading Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Skeleton Trees music aims to become the soundscape of your dreams.

Skeleton Trees is the brainchild of J. Bannon, Jean-David Brouillette and Alice Morrison, three Montreal artists interested in experimental and avant-garde music who also discovered they shared similar interests for multimedia, films and for psycho-acoustic experiments.

Even though the roots of Skeleton Trees started a few years before, the actual lineup and concepts were only finalized in 2007.

After more than 2 years of composing, testing and experimenting, Skeleton Trees finally released their first album, Season of Mists, in February 2010.

The sound of Skeleton Trees is primarily based on studio experimentations and the use of technology to create sonic landscapes. The music is created mostly around structures of repetitive patterns. It evolves through long and slow movements of ethereal beauty but at the same time often flirts with the sensibilities of alternative rock and electronica.

Season of Mists is inhabited by ethereal guitars, luscious violins, hypnotic drums, organ drones and ghostly vocals while the repetitive and hypnotic bass lines are reminiscent of The Cure’s album Faith with their omnipresence.

With her sensual French accent, Alice Morrison’s haunting vocals make her sounds like she could be Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier’s dark sister, while at the same time sharing a few things in common with the Velvet Underground’s Nico.

Obvious echoes from gothic bands such as The Cure and Joy Division can be heard throughout the album but one might also recognize influences from avant-garde composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass or even from bands as different as Portishead, Goldfrapp and Tangerine Dreams

The first album is mostly about regrets, memories, the passage of time, getting older and realizing the there’s more time behind and less in front. It is an existential, atmospheric and melancholic piece of work.

In 2013, Skeleton Trees released a 2nd album, entitled Structure 24 – Opus 1.

The album release party was held on the 4th of May at Atomic Cafe also in Montreal. It was the 1st time that Skeleton Trees played live in front of an audience.

Structure 24 is a project that started as a collection of songs for the web; 24 different song which were composed over a period of 2 years. The idea behing the project was to create something different. In that spirit, the songs are shorter and more vocal-oriented compared to Season of Mists. Opus 1 features the first half of the project.