In the fall of 1995,
Rheostatics were asked by the National Gallery of Canada
to write and perform a 40 minute piece of music honouring
the Group of Seven's 75th anniversary.
With Kevin Hearn joining the band on piano
and samples, they conceived the piece over two weeks and
performed it at the Gallery Theatre in
front of projected paintings and era film footage of landscapes
and the depression.
This mainly instrumental
work (with the exception of Northern Wish
and a few others) was created to evoke the melting landscapes
and thrilling skies of the Group's cavalier artists (not
forgetting Emily
Carr and Tom Thompson)
and their epochal nationalist movement.
Threaded throughout are the voices of Queen
Elizabeth, MacKenzie King, John Diefenbaker and Newsy
Lalonde, as well as a telephone conversation recorded
by drummer/cellist Don Kerr with Victoria's
Winchell Price, a fine painter of landscapes
and skies and a wonderful storyteller. This work was originally
performed before a sold-out house on October 21st, 1995,
and was later recorded for this CD at the Gas Station Studios in Toronto by Don
Kerr and Rheostatics.