Broken Deer's Displaced Field Recordings

It came on fast and hard, as the birth of Broken Deer's debut "Displaced Field Recordings" was the result of an unconscious surge of creation. According to lead fawn Lindsay Dobbin, the wounded wunderkind behind these patchworks of achingly raw, yet beautiful landscapes, "feeling creative is just a mind hum that needs to be expressed."

Late in the Spring of 2006, Dobbin was recruited to live in the oldest apartment dwelling at the mouth of downtown Halifax. With the ancient fortress to the right of her and the bridge to Dartmouth at her left, she sewed together the most influential album of this year while I slept in the bedroom next door. Obviously my biases should be presented considering this visionary is my band mate, best friend, former roommate and sister.

But with all of those incidental/coincidentals aside, "Displaced Field Recordings" navigates the curious listener through the eerie, deep, dark, dank woods with a flashlight which cuts in and out at random. Listen; the whispers ring! One moment I am in the thick of the bush, the loneliness sinks in, my brain is a sieve. All mess, no order. Fear nips, bites and barks at the hairs on my neck. Anxiety thickens. My heart beats to the abstract rhythms.

Suddenly, a flash of blinding shooting stars fall across the sky. An overwhelming sadness envelopes my eardrums. The orphan choir echoes in the distance, their hollowed voices rejoice in-between the intervals of layered tape. The orchestration of haunting emblems of the past surface, such as lost lovers, soldiers, both the strong and weak of heart meet. A reunion of mourning. A funeral of sorts.

This is not an album, but a pregnancy, an artifact of fantastical misery, joy and collective individuality. "Displaced Field Recordings" soundtracks the revival of my soul, as the wretched translucent organ once belched and begged for mercy, but no longer. I rest among the living, the pure of spirit, I raise my glass in honour of those who wander the earth today and those who still live beneath it. A knowing wink to you.