Rarely is the title of an album such a pointed indicator of the record's sound as it is in the case of Twi the Humble Feather's debut, Music For Spaceships and Forests. This New York trio makes epic music that readily conjures a journey through a mysterious and surprising land. According to guitarist and vocalist Anthony Lebron, the songs on the album are "a soundtrack to the adventures of this character, 'TWI." Originally conceived by Lebron as "a derivative of twilight," the word "Twi," (rhymes with "why") is specifically defined as an "interstellar traveler, adventurer, or forest maker."
Instead of an artistic rendering of Twi's fantastical world, a mini creation/adventure story decorates the album and provides some background on Twi's travels and the sights and sounds he encounters. According to Lebron, the band consciously chose not to include any images on the album because the text "gives the listener the chance to create their own idea of what Twi sees and what worlds are depicted in the music."
Music For Spaceships and Forests is largely an instrumental work—Lebron, a classically trained guitarist, cites Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, and J. S. Bach for inspiration—but unique vocal stylings that resemble rhythmic and melodic chanting accompany the intricate acoustic guitar interludes, electronic elements, and light percussion. Though occasionally, words like "spaceship," "lights," or "stars" stand out, the vocals are often indecipherable and are "meant to appear alien or foreign," reports Lebron. With its mysterious vocals about far away lands and beautiful instrumentation, Music For Spaceships and Forests is delightfully otherworldly.
- Robert Hilton
Every critic probably has one: the pile of CDs (and virtual pile of downloads) awaiting a spare moment and still deserving a listen even after the deadlines have come and gone. Here’s the mop-up from 2008 — some timely, and the rest worth the wait.
Twi the Humble Feather
The three classical guitarists who make up Twi the Humble Feather, based in Brooklyn, include their unconventional tuning in the credits of their debut EP, “Music for Spaceships and Forests” (Friendly Ghost). Such music geekery suits a band that builds its songs out of repeated chords and picking patterns that are staggered among the three guitars, along with mouth-percussion noises, falsetto vocals and stray sounds like bird calls and electronic swoops. Precise and ethereal, the music ends up in a peculiar place, somewhere in the midst of math, meditation and the singsong of a child making up a new myth.
- Jon Pareles
One of the great joys of being an avid music listener is hearing a record that seems to make everything stop, that seems so new and so fully formed that it is hard to believe it could have come into being without anyone noticing. The kind of records that have you looking around and saying to yourself, "What is this and why haven't I heard this before?" Twi the Humble Feather -- the improbable name of the band at hand -- has made such a record. In fact, Twi (rhymes with "why") has been quietly toiling away on this little gem of a record for the last several years, playing increasingly frequent, intimate shows in New York City and Brooklyn to unsuspecting gatherings of people who undoubtedly find themselves asking the aforementioned questions. Less like songs than a continuous 25 minute composition in five movements, Music for Spaceships and Forests was made with the relatively modest means of three voices, two nylon string guitars, a steel string and a few subtle electronic sounds. But there is so much exuberance, clarity and openness to this music that the means of its facture -- and the personalities of its makers -- seem to fall away, leaving only the well-lit, pattern-like trails of phasing arpeggios, angelic, often wordless choral harmonies and warm, womb-like silences. The record has a certain purity to it and even its densest moments are executed with such harmonious precision that they provide the listener with a seemingly infinite amount of space for discovering new things to hear. Though harmony is the unifying substance of this music --whether it be in the classically-inspired, contrapuntal guitar inventions that propel these pieces forward or the choir-like vocal arrangements that seem to coalesce and vanish at will like some kind of cosmic ether -- the pieces move along with an irresistible sense of rhythm, usually created by catchy strum patterns, bell-like harmonics and an unlikely but wholly successful use of vocal percussion. A lot of times it seems like these guys are imitating wind or pounding rain with their voices -- and having a great time doing it -- and the sparingly used swathes of electronics sounds and field recordings of birds and natural sounds also contribute to this sense of both the otherworldly and the earthly idyllic.
That Twi will shoulder comparisons to Animal Collective is somewhat inevitable, but there is a vast world of musical strains of influence present here, including everything from baroque and flamenco guitar music, and the phasing patterns of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, to the minimalist by way of early music choral works of Arvo Part, that are much more instructive in pointing to a musical trajectory that is entirely this band's own. A classical sense of composition and discipline are central to the music here, but fortunately Twi has the good sense to put precision at the service of what can only be described as a totally unpretentious and intuitive commitment to making enjoyable music. Though totally different sonically, in the sense of the happy commingling of the esoteric and the folk -- and I use that word in reference to its most literal, essential definition as opposed to the genre that bears the same name -- a comparison to Johanna Newsom's first album, The Milk-eyed Mender, might be another appropriate contemporary touchstone. But whereas Newsom's records seem more concerned with a radical transmutation of the antiquated, Music for Spaceships and Forests is a resolutely forward-looking album; and having just polished off a string of dates with Jose Gonzalez and as the buzz about them grows on the blogs and boards, the future looks bright indeed. It's been a long time since I've heard a record as unabashedly full of joy and generosity of spirit as this and the fact that it is a debut is great cause for rejoice. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
[CC] (Released 2008) Other Music
The music of New York City’s Twi the Humble Feather sounds like a Wes Anderson movie waiting to happen. Comprising of three acoustic guitarists who all play and sing, often identical or nearly identical parts, the band revels in a cerebral kind of sweet and silly; like a reincarnation of whistles blowing out of a school bus, only here fingers leap in unison like ballerinas and quick gasps of breath make way for a trail of some very important monosyllabic sounds. It turns out, anyhow, that there is a story of cinematic proportions here, and this oddly heartening music owes itself to Twi (pronounced Twai).
Twi, named after twilight for its quality of balance, is front man Anthony Lebron’s beloved fictional character, whose adventures in deep space are so precious, it’s only proper the band devote itself to translating them into worthy musical narratives. Speaking to him after the show, I gathered from Anthony that there are volumes of unwritten Twi stories in his head, though one telling story can be found on the cover of Music for Spaceships and Forests EP in the form of a lovely poem. A brief history I picked up from the conversation: first there was Twi, who met the Humble Feather, the first being Twi ever met, and then the two became one, and the Humble Feather “regurgitated” (to use Anthony’s word) through Twi, hence the deliberate removal of the “and”, which leaves us with Twi the Humble Feather. The band is presently working on a full length album.
- Hooves On The Turf
There are lots of bands out there lauded simply for their originality, bands that otherwise don’t deserve much attention. Twi the Humble Feather, while sounding like nothing we’ve ever heard, is not one of them. The exclusively acoustic three-piece come across as a live-action tape-loop of sorts, their chanting falsettos bleeding through cycles of finger strumming dwindles and swells. It’s part Gregorian chant, part Christmas carol and part Panda Bear’s Person Pitch unplugged. The forthcoming album is called Music for Spaceships and Forests.
-L MAGAZINE
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