Music Features

Your New Favourite Band #6: You Are My Symphonic

Your New Favourite Band is a brand new feature series on No Ripcord. Each month, we will be profiling two of our favourite newcomers, publishing a short biography, video, and embedded audio file.

Aside from the all-important No Ripcord seal of approval, there is an additional prize at stake for the most popular of these two artists. The artist whose profile article receives the most 'Tweets' and Facebook 'Likes' will win the title of No Ripcord Readers New Artist of the Month along with one month's worth of free banner advertising and a coveted spot on our monthly podcast, The No RipCast. So please bear this in mind and use our Social Networking buttons judiciously to vote for your favourite.


You Are My Symphonic

You Are My Symphonic is the recording project of Montreal-based laptop composer Vishal Kassie. Like this month's other YNFB artist, Miracle Parade, Kassie is not a new artist in the traditional sense – he has been quietly working away for a decade or so, perfecting his distinctive brand of lush ambient music. As I hadn't heard of You Are My Symphonic until a very recent tip from No Ripcord's very own Ryan Pratt, however, it seemed like a perfect fit for this feature. I was excited by YAMS and I got the distinct sense that you would share my enthusiasm. I hope this hunch proves to be correct.

Kassie really does make the very best kind of laptop music – the gorgeous soundscapes that comprise his stunning I Found Your Faces Of Montreal album sound like they were born of wide open spaces, not a cramped home studio. Nothing on Montreal sounds limited in scope, yet at the same time nothing is overblown; Kassie is clearly a very astute self-editor.

After listening to the album I few times, I learned from the YAMS blog that Kassie's laptop, which contained a nearly-finished version of this album, was stolen during a vacation in Toronto back in 2008. Rather than wallow in his misfortune, Kassie set about re-recording, extending upon, and improving his original vision, and the I Found Your Faces Of Montreal that is now available to stream and purchase from his Bandcamp page is the result of these labours. The following two tracks, Autumn Will Fall In Love (video) and The Light Across Your Face (audio stream), encapsulate everything that is great about their parent album. Critics are constantly falling over themselves to praise mediocre bedroom recording artists, but Kassie is undoubtedly one of the true unheralded talents out there. Welcome You Are My Symphonic into your life and support one of the good guys.

 

Further Information on You Are My Symphonic:
Bandcamp
Blogspot
Twitter


This month's other profiled act is Miracle Parade, who you can check out here. If You Are My Symphonic are your favourite of the two, please use the Twitter and Facebook buttons below to cast a virtual vote for them.