Basia Bulat

The Garden

CD

Regular price $16.99 CAD

The Garden is a retrospective album of wonderful new recordings by Basia Bulat, featuring graceful arrangements for strings and sonic landscapes reimagined. “…the results are lovely, while the gorgeous purity of Bulat’s voice glides elegantly above it all” - Uncut

The Garden is the new album by Basia Bulat where she reimagines a selection of songs from her five previous studio albums with gorgeous string arrangements...

The Garden is the new album by Basia Bulat where she reimagines a selection of songs from her five previous studio albums with gorgeous string arrangements by Owen Pallett, Paul Frith, and Zou Zou Robidoux. While she has been known to play live with small chamber ensembles and full orchestras–including the Ottawa National Arts Centre Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia–The Garden marks Bulat’s first recording to capture this spellbinding configuration, which further showcases her singular voice and timeless songwriting. Across the 16 songs, produced by herself and Mark Lawson (Arcade Fire, Beirut), she revisits and gives new life to beloved originals alongside a handpicked group of string players, as well as bandmates Andrew Woods and Ben Whiteley on guitar and bass, respectively. 

“This past year, I let myself slow down, dig in the dirt, take root, and look at what memories and melodies came springing back to me in the garden after many years on the road. When I wrote ‘The Garden’ [in 2016], I was in a distorted state of mind, and it took my hand and calmed me. ‘We won’t look back, and if we don’t, we won’t be lost.’ It told me to breathe into the present moment and look toward the future, and during this past year of stillness and reflection, it reminded me to do that again, like a meditation,” explains Bulat. “Gardens evolve and change and are always growing. In my garden, the plants return, some pruned back, some overgrown, but they are never exactly the same as the year before. Owen’s arrangement for this song details all the blossoms and thorns blowing about together in the wind – new shoots and old shapes making themselves known to each other in magical ways. I feel so very fortunate to bring this song to another season in bloom.” 

For Bulat, The Garden was a chance to record anew select songs whose meanings have shifted from when she originally composed them. Distance teaches, and reveals: “I sing the songs differently now,” she says. “It’s the gift of time.” While creating The Garden, Bulat had just found out she was expecting her first child, which she revealed to her collaborators in the midst of recording, down a wire from the vocal booth. A song can change shape, turning new leaves and growing new blooms, in life’s unexpected seasons.

"The title track has the pastoral lushness and wonder of Cat Stevens’ Morning Has Broken while Bulat’s vocal is as gritty and wise as Natalie Merchant.” - MOJO

“Un opus d’une grande sensibilité dont on se délecte d’un trait parce qu’il fait vibrer le coeur, inspire la force et transporte d’espoir” - Le Journal de Québec 

The quartet of players performing orchestral reimaginings of Bulat’s music create a different tenor and take on her normally folk-oriented sound, while giving the musician’s voice a chance to evolve and shine in a new light” - The Onion AV Club

Product Details

Packaging
Cardboard sleeve with fold-out poster
Label
Secret City Records

Production Credits

Producers
Basia Bulat and Mark Lawson
Sound Engineer & Mix
Mark Lawson
Assistant Sound Engineer
Andrew Woods
Mastering
Harris Newman

Musicians

Basia Bulat
Vocals / Autoharp / Guitar / Electric Piano
John Corban
Violin
Tomo Newton
Violin
Zou Zou Robidoux
Cello
Jen Thiessen
Viola
Ben Whiteley
Bass
Andrew Woods
Mellotron
Sarah Pagé
Harp
Tamara Lindeman
Vocals

Composition Credits

1. The Garden
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Owen Pallett)
2. Infamous
Basia Bulat  (Arr. & Orch.:  Paul Frith)
3. Heart Of My Own
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Owen Pallett)
4. The Shore
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Owen Pallett) 
5. I Was A Daughter
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Owen Pallett)
6. Go On
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Owen Pallett)
7. Tall Tall Shadow
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Paul Frith)
8. The Pilgriming Vine
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Owen Pallett)
9. Windflowers
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Basia Bulat)
10. Fables
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Zou Zou Robidoux)
11. Already Forgiven
Basia Bulat  (Arr. & Orch.:  Zou Zou Robidoux)
12. Love Is At The End Of The World
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Paul Frith)
13. Lupins
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Basia Bulat)
14. In The Name Of
Basia Bulat (Arr. & Orch.:  Owen Pallett)
15. Are You in Love?
Basia Bulat  (Arr. & Orch.:  Zou Zou Robidoux)