''He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms...'' is the debut album of Canadian

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

group

A Silver Mt. Zion A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

, who now record under the name Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. The album was recorded by

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Efrim Menuck Efrim Manuel Menuck (; born November 4, 1970) is a Canadian musician involved with a number of Montreal-based bands, most notably Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. Menuck is also a frequent record producer a ...

and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Thierry Amar Thierry Amar is a Canadian musician, engineer and producer. He is a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Earthquake Architecture, The Craig Pedersen Quartet and Black Ox Orkestar. He i ...

at the

Hotel2Tango The Hotel2Tango (sometimes referred to as Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango and abbreviated H2T) is a 24-track analogue recording studio situated in the Mile End district of Montreal, Quebec. The current facility is the second to bear the name, and was pr ...

in 1999, mostly during breaks while touring with

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian post-rock band which originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation, an independent record label also located i ...

. It was published by the Montreal-based record label

Constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

on March 27, 2000. The album was born out of a desire by

to record something for his dog Wanda, who died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

while

were on tour. Menuck described the recording of the album as a "Jewish experience", due to his immersion within a small, friend-based Jewish community in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. Indeed, Menuck also stated that, as a result of the community, the album title and songs have a sense of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

, although the band tried to not make it conspicuous. There is some Jewish imagery in the lyrics to the track "Movie (Never Made)", but their exact meaning remains cryptic. The album was initially to be named ''He Has Left Us Alone'', but it was decided that this was too weak, and didn't convey the proper mood. Menuck professed that he was confused with the idea that songs or album titles should only be a few words in length and be perfectly clear. Instead, Menuck believes that things of that nature can be described with many words, giving sensibility and a "frame" to the work. On the original

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

release, the songs were arranged into two tracks; on CD releases, the songs were indexed into four parts each, resulting in eight tracks. The sleeve artwork lists inaccurate track times, all rounded to even minutes. The 5th track "13 Angels Standing Guard 'round the Side of Your Bed" was featured in

Harmony Korine Harmony Korine (born January 4, 1973, some sources report September 1, 1974)
" Retrieved on 2009-10-26. is an Ame ...

's movie ''

Mister Lonely ''Mister Lonely'' is a 2007 comedy film directed by Harmony Korine and co-written with his brother Avi Korine. It features an ensemble cast of international actors, including Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Lavant, Werner Herzog, James Fox, A ...

''. It also features in Series 3 episode 10 of ''

Top Boy ''Top Boy'' is a British television crime drama series, created and written by Ronan Bennett. The series is set in the fictional Summerhouse estate in the London Borough of Hackney and focuses on two drug dealers Dushane ( Ashley Walters) and ...

''. It was also sampled on the

Injury Reserve Injury Reserve is an American hip hop group formed in 2013 in Tempe, Arizona by rappers Stepa J. Groggs (Jordan Groggs), Ritchie with a T (Nathaniel Ritchie), and producer Parker Corey. History 2013–2014: Career beginnings, ''Depth Chart ...

track “What a Year It's Been” from their 2019 self-titled album.

Reception

Reviewing the album for

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

, Matt LeMay called the album "an accomplishment of passion, skill, and above all, an almost supernatural talent".

Track listing

Vinyl edition

CD edition

Personnel

;A Silver Mt. Zion *

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, radio, production * Sophie Trudeau –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, vocals ;Other musicians *

Aidan Girt Aidan Girt is a Canadian drummer for the Montreal-based post-rock collectives Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Exhaust. He is also a solo electronic artist under the names ''OSB'', ''1-Speed Bike'', and ''Bottleskup Flenkenkenmike'' and continues ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

on "Sit in the Middle of Three Galloping Dogs", tapes on "For Wanda" * Gordon Krieger –

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

on "Blown-out Joy from Heaven's Mercied Hole" *

Sam Shalabi Shalabi Effect is a mostly instrumental band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The band was originally formed in 1996 as a duo composed of Anthony Seck and Sam Shalabi. Shalabi is an Egyptian-Canadian musician who is also the founder of Swamp Circu ...

– guitar on "Blown-out Joy from Heaven's Mercied Hole"

References

External links

''He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms…''
at Constellation Records {{Authority control Thee Silver Mt. Zion albums 2000 debut albums Constellation Records (Canada) albums Albums recorded at Hotel2Tango Jewish music albums