Highwood Atlas Shares New Album, The Magic Hand of Chance
Ottawa/Gatineau-based artist Highwood Atlas has unveiled his 8-song album, The Magic Hand of Chance.
The Magic Hand of Chance can be broadly classified as indie folk but defies easy categorization. The album blends catchy piano melodies, chamber-pop orchestration, soul-inspired horns, electronic blips, and guest vocals by Cassy Rum.
Lyrically, the album sways from melancholy to hope amidst post-apocalyptic imagery. Sometimes lyrics are stolen from famous poets. Other times, they’re my own musings, dwelling on loss, decay, and distant childhood memories.
Listen to The Magic Hand of Chance below and learn more about Highwood Atlas via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m originally from Calgary, formerly a Vancouver Island-based farmer, and currently living in Ottawa/Gatineau. I’m a long-time music geek, and after attempting to write songs in relative secrecy for over a decade, I took a mentorship program with Beat Drop Music Production School in the fall of 2021.
They helped me finish an old batch of folksy songs, which I released as Highwood Atlas last year. The name comes from my love of Alberta’s Highwood Pass in Kananaskis Country.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
My upcoming EP (or short 8-song album), The Magic Hand of Chance, is my second release. It’s defiantly anti-genre: a gentle cocktail of piano-based songs that blend chamber-pop orchestration, soul-inspired horns, electronic blips, and guest vocals by the saccharine-voiced Cassy Rum. Lyrically, the themes dwell on decay, loss, distant childhood memories, and trying to find light amidst darkness.
“Kirsten Raymonde (There’s Still Time)” is probably the track I’m the most proud of. It’s a slow build, that evolves into a joyous sing-along chorus. I made a point of using unusual sounds and instruments, like camera clicks, mellotron, e-bow, and xylophone, to give it a memorable vibe.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
For this batch of songs, I looked heavily to poetry and literature for inspiration. “Kirsten Raymonde” is very directly inspired by the novel Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Other times I took a line or two from a poem to weave them into my own narrative. Or, in the case of “November for Beginners” and “Ocean of Earth”, I basically put the entire poem to music, and hardly changed any words at all. That’s something I’m upfront about, since I wouldn’t claim those words as my own.
Musically, I’m inspired by artists like Sufjan Stevens, Jens Lekman, the Magnetic Fields, Yo La Tengo, the Avalanches, Eric’s Trip, Cat Power, and so many more.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
Oh, how I wish I did. I’m still brainstorming how I can turn Highwood Atlas into a real band. That’s a challenge because I use a lot of samples, and my guest vocalist lives on the opposite side of the world. That said, I dream of someday playing at smaller indie/folk festivals across Canada.
What’s your goal for 2023?
To put together a real band so I can make that dream come true. Also, to finish an acoustic batch of songs I’ve been working on for my next release.