The Songs Which Are, Stranger Still

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Last updated 03 abril 2025

The sophomore record from Stranger Still, which consists of musical settings by composer Pete Johnston of poems by Canadian poet Alden Nowlan (1933-1983). Johnston and Nowlan share a birthplace of Hants County, Nova Scotia, and the poems tell stories of the people, seasons, and landscape of the Atlantic coast of Canada. The Songs Which Are evokes both the alluring Celtic folk roots of Canada's Maritime Provinces and the stark commanding beauty of plainsong, conveyed in the pure, tone-perfect solo and harmonised offerings of vocalists Mim Adams and Randi Helmers a fine fit for Nowlan's reflective, intensive and lovely versification. Words and music both reward a deep listen to this unusual offering.— Jeff Kaliss, Songlines “Pete Johnston’s song project Stranger Still plays music profoundly rooted in the culture of his native Nova Scotia [the] pieces are honed to a warm evocation of Nowlan’s work, suggesting medieval chant, minimalism, and folk music in a lucid rendering of hard-edged struggles suspended between vision and loss.” — Stuart Broomer, Musicworks