When you’re as accomplished of a multi-instrumentalist as Montreal’s Tim Crabtree, the slow burn of composition and arrangement is worth it for the final product. Crabtree’s in his tenth year of releasing under the name Paper Beat Scissors and between his proficiency arranging and performing vocals, guitar, bass, piano, woodwinds, strings and more, he’s become a master of his craft.
Crabtree’s piercing voice and haunting orchestral chamber folk hit the mark once again on PBS’ upcoming third full-length, Parallel Line. It’s a serene eleven-song meditation on what it means to be alive in the world today, conceived from Crabtree’s most enlightening experiences of the past couple years and primarily mixed by Beck/Thurston Moore engineer Dean Nelson. Parallel Line is out next Friday coinciding with a tour across Western Europe and Canada but today you can enter the placid atmosphere early with “All It Was”!
Photo: Alex Pearson