A while back, we found out about this Montreal based music collective going by the name of Plumes, by way of our friends at Mezzic. The band has yet to extensively tour the US (to my knowledge) but has lots of experience in Canada and Europe, where they seem to be captivating audiences with their mixture of classical music and indie folk. Well, I have yet to see any evidence to the contrary, at least.

Plumes, after releasing a very solid self titled record a few years ago, reemerged late last year as an ensemble. The feel of the songs leaned a bit too far into the classical realm to fit into the “Plumes” canon, so now we have “Plumes Ensemble.”

An interesting way to compare the two versions of the band is to listen to “Away from Home,” a song that makes an appearance on both records. The ensemble version is markedly more drawn out and the band takes more liberties with the instrumentation. An upright bass and violin plucking (I think?) ease us into the uptempo track, whereas in the “band” version the song assertively comes at you straight out of the gates.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/175976781″ /]

Another distinction that Plumes Ensemble makes is the fact that this record is largely dominated by two movements – “Twenty Hungarian Folksongs” and simply “Folk Songs.” The latter is a half dozen tunes that vary in origin, from a West Asian traditional to an old gospel hymn. Veronica Churnley conquers each challenge with ease, demonstrating her classically trained chops one moment and serenading us with a more modernized singer songwriter voice the next. “Frappe” is a cool example of such a time where Churnley exhibits a more accessible vocal style amongst a more traditional song structure that is neither pop nor folk (my lack of music jargon knowledge is surely showing right now). If you want something really whimsical I recommend the second track, “Swimming With Astronauts,” by they way.

Listen to this band empty out one box at a time and be impressed with all they can do. That’s a command.

Plumes (Ensemble) on Facebook, Twitter, bandcamp