Orienteers
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | SELF
Music
Press
"...Extremely effective and affecting (and) extremely competent...This is a hugely enjoyable album." - Penny Black Music
"...Their sound is subtle and subdued, beautifully crafted, so much so that it’s garnered them comparisons to Kurt Vile, Pink Floyd and Animal Collective." - Artist Mix Tapes
"The whole thing flows together with a disarming sense of ease and grace....Orienteers won't shout or make much of a fuss to get your attention but they most certainly deserve it." - Soundblab
"...Orienteers have created a majestic work of beauty, a hushed, slow paced languid affair that seduces, inspires and intoxicates, an album that not only deservers your full attention but also deserves your time to fully appreciate the captivating music they’ve produced here."
- Rhythm & Booze
"There’s no denying their self titled album is going to turn a lot of heads their way...Orienteers have perfected the idea of abstract, ambient tones mixed with a rustic, aching Americana vibe...A meticulous and beautiful collection of hushed gems."
- The Byke Rack
"Understated brilliance with subconscious salutes to their influences ...This album, with its’ hushed vocals and celestial soundscapes is truly unique ...They’ve found a niche and smacked it out of the ground..." - Popped Culture
"A fascinating patchwork of an album, cohesive, understated and quite unlike anything else that I've heard this year so far..." Verbal Rocket (UK) - Verbal Rocket
"Orienteers are the heavy-lidded lords of a sweet, sleepy land of achingly pretty melodies, peaceful reflection and fuzzy warmth. They seem to need very little to create a dreamlike haze of happy reverie, and thus are almost impossible to dislike..." - Trebuchet Magazine
Discography
Orienteers (s/t) - Fall, 2011 (Antique Room/self-released)
Staying Places - Sept, 2008 (Antique Room/self-released)
Photos
Bio
"Orienteers are the heavy-lidded lords of a sweet, sleepy land of achingly pretty melodies, peaceful reflection and fuzzy warmth... almost impossible to dislike." - Trebuchet Magazine
On the release of Orienteers' eponymous fall 2011 debut, the UK's Popped Culture proclaimed that Orienteers had "found a niche and smacked it out of the ground". But it took a while to get to this point.
In 2008, under the name That’s The Spirit, they released the album Staying Places to great critical acclaim, in the wake of which they opened for fellow indie dream-explorers the Flaming Lips and Metric, and played high-profile festivals like NXNE, CMW and Ottawa Bluesfest. Settling on a new name that they felt better reflected their penchant for writing about travel, Orienteers have penned an album that is quiet and sparse, but feels complete in and of itself, as it traverses the realm of psych and folk with utter aplomb, and has drawn comparisons to Sparklehorse, the Shins, Flaming Lips, Giant Sand, Belle and Sebastian, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, and Spiritualized. However, the fact is that this four-piece truly sounds like no one else.
Orienteering is defined as a cross-country race in which participants use a map and compass to navigate along checkpoints across unfamiliar terrain. In the case of Ottawa’s Orienteers, music is both navigational tool and terrain. The result is their unique brand of space-folk that seems less intent upon any sort of race, than it does with taking its time exploring the outer limits of an uncharted aural galaxy.
In 2011 they released the full-length, Orienteers (out via Antique Room), which in their own words, “…is a travel focused collection of fragile space-folk, layered with looping pedal-steel guitar, wind chime acoustics and warm blankets of bass and brush sticks.” On Orienteers, the experimental melancholia is heightened by countrified guitars, undulating synth and subdued vocals--all swirled into a melodic psychedelic dream, bolstered by solid song writing throughout. Speaking of song writing, we’ve been told that since adopting their new moniker, they’ve been writing at a furious pace.
In other words, expect Orienteers to be the first in a series of space-folk masterpieces. However, until the arrival of the next album, feel free to bask in the glory of the current release. And when they come to your town, be sure to catch the live act. Each delicate performance draws you in to a carefully composed world of sonic exploration.
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