MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: EDGAR BREAU - (s/t)

If you know Breau's name, it's most likely as leader of Hamilton's cult punk-prog pioneers Simply Saucer, resurrected from the '70's and more powerful than ever these days. If you really know Breau, you'll know his solo work leans to the acoustic folk side, but with lots of grand washes of instruments and dreamy soundscapes. This is his most musically ambitious set, filled to the brim with rich textures, all in a purple haze. It's Syd Barrett if he was an acid champion instead of an acid casualty.

Joining Breau in this lush mix of instruments and voices are Blue Rodeo vets Glenn Milchem (drums) and Kim Deschamps (pedal steel), Saucer stalwart Kevin Christoff (bass), Hamilton fave Mike Trebilcock (vocals), lots of strings, sitar, glockenspiel and the multi-instrumental talents of Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell on lots of electronics, synth, kalimba, autoharp, field recordings, and on and on. It's a marvelous, laid-back sound, trippy and rewarding, all those rich and interesting tones mixing and combining in wonderful ways. Breau has a literary way of writing, placing us in short stories with developed characters. Plus, he does the often-dangerous, but here very rewarding trick of adapting known poetry to music, bravely and successfully using one work by Yeats ("He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead") and two by eccentric 20th century British poet Edith Sitwell. These sit pretty much seamlessly with his own compositions, and it's an engrossing and rewarded album throughout.