Photo Credit: Vanessa Heins |
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LISTEN/PURCHASE & SHARE: Zoon - A Sterling Murmuration EP Purchase / StreamLISTEN & SHARE: Zoon - "Play Ground" StreamLISTEN/PURCHASE & SHARE: Zoon - Big Pharma EP Purchase / StreamLISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Zoon - "Oil Pastel/Dope Sick" (ft. Cadence Weapon) Stream / YouTubeLISTEN & SHARE: Zoon - Apple Music Home Session Apple MusicLISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Zoon - "Astum" (ft. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson) Stream / YouTubeLISTEN & SHARE: Zoon - Bleached Wavves LP Stream |
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"'Play Ground' dives back into the realm of shoegaze, this time crafting a decadent sampling of dream pop melodies. The track’s dreamy tempo gives it the feel of a lilting ballad, yet the prominent percussion and lush washes of guitar also add an element of swirling bliss in the same vein as touchstones like The Cocteau Twins."
- Under the Radar
"A Sterling Murmation is a gorgeous display of dream pop, tapping into shades of Cocteau Twins and Slowdive while also offering something personal and revelatory."
- Clash
“On Big Pharma, Monkman scales back the layers of chopped, looped, and distorted guitar and electronic effects that submerged listeners on Zoon’s breakthrough album, 2020’s Bleached Wavves. But Big Pharma has its own immersive, abstracted moments.”
- Northern Transmissions
"A hazy, lo-fi single that recalls the genre-wary blog raps of a decade ago from artists like unouomedude and Cities Aviv."
- FLOOD Magazine
"The music feels spry and light on its feet, never relying on the heights of it influences for connection but rather carving out its own corner where it can indulge its desires without restriction."
- Beats Per Minute
“One of the album’s most enchanting tracks, “Brokenhead,” is ruled by a wicked overdriven guitar riff, which has an acute sense of longing. The windy guitars and calming percussion make for a transcendent experience.”
- Paste
“Gorgeous debut album Bleached Wavves...”
- The FADER
"['Astum' is] a track that finds an equilibrium between pop’s elastic movements and shoegaze’s volatile rhythms. The song moves along gently, swaying with each sweetly sung word and doused in lite-psych vibrations."
- Beats Per Minute
"Zoon's songs are often full of quiet revelations, and that remains true on 'Astum', [...] The two make 'Astum' a space for reflection, refraction, and contemplation. 'You'll change, I want to believe it,' Zoon sings, a voice full of nostalgia and yearning overtop swirls of guitar, keys, strings, and charmingly low-key handclaps. We don't know what promises have been made, broken, and repaired in the creation of this song, but we can feel the hope in every note."
- CBC Music
"...melodically bright and windswept. 'Astum' is a must-listen for when your toes are firmly planted in the sun-kissed sand."
- CBC Music
"['Astum' is a] shimmery, densely-layered track that finds Monkman's voice floating over a delicate rhythm section and washes of aquatic guitar.
- Exclaim!
"'Astum' takes the tempo down a notch and provides some breathing room around Monkman’s wispy delivery and subtle melodies. There’s space for his thoughts to process, for the listener to absorb the song’s serious themes of addiction and the constant push/pull of the trauma that underlies the need to numb the pain."
- Dominonated
"While just as haunting and ethereal, Zoon’s take feels subtly darker, a slightly off-center recreation that nonetheless holds onto the despondent center of the track.”
- Under The Radar
“Monkman’s frustrations and courageous spirit exude through spiking guitar riffs and monstrous distortion.”
- KEXP
“The record is a true headtrip, perfect for a year in which shelter-in-place rules limited options for journeying and over the course of its ten songs, Monkman paints from an expansive sonic palette that still has a unified thrust to the material.”
- Earshot - The Top 200 Albums of 2020
“Like much of Bleached Wavves, it's intricate and subtle, familiar yet inventive, and rich with layers of life and sound. Zoon's debut album is nothing short of remarkable.”
- Exclaim!
“Zoongide'ewin's debut is a poised, poignant and profoundly moving symphony of sound”
- Dominionated
“Bleached Wavves is the perfect name for a shoegaze album deeply evocative yet highly enigmatic in equal measure.”
- Apple Music
“As we cross the halfway mark of 2020, it’s important to critically appraise the legitimate candidates for Album of the Year as promptly as possible. The debut album from Zoongide’ewin, released 19 June, sits squarely in that camp.”
- DecayFM
“This is the My Bloody Valentine album people have been waiting for... Most bands would rightly settle for any comparison to MBV, even if the comparison is likely handed out too often. But BLEACHED WAVVES is a throughline beyond Shields’ work that’s pretty remarkable, the kind of album that deserves instant recognition and praise within the genre.”
- Merry Go Round Magazine (Bandcamp Pick of The Week)
“artist Daniel Monkman whose self-professed 'moccasin-gaze' album “Bleached Wavves,” under his stage name Zoon, blends his Ojibwe roots with an alternative rock flavour.”
- The Toronto Star
“his renowned debut album, Bleached Wavves...sees Monkman merging his love of shoegaze with his Ojibway heritage and upbringing.”
- Indie88
“On this highly successful debut album, Monkman embraces his ancestors’ historic wound and heals it with a rich, oceanic, colourful, and life-saving soundscape, where he can finally spread his wings freely.”
- PanAm360
“Monkman covers a wide range of styles and moods in just half an hour, but it all ties into his message of healing and empowerment, along with a hint of nostalgic longing. He clearly has an abundance of ideas, and it'll be fascinating to see where he goes from here.”
- All Music |
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Today, Zoon (Zoongide’ewin), the musical project fronted by songwriter Daniel Monkman, shares a brand new surprise 4-track EP entitled A Sterling Murmuration (out today via Paper Bag Records). In addition to the surprise release, he has also shared the EP's focus track, "Play Ground."
Speaking on the track, Daniel wrote:
"'Playground' was written in Winnipeg around 2010. At that time I had just experienced a huge loss which was a close friend of mine. I returned to our hometown, Selkirk, Manitoba, to find some closure. One evening I visited the school that we attended together. I noticed so much change, new additions and extended class rooms, the fence was brand new, grass freshly cut and the play ground was completely changed. It made me really sad to see time and what it does to a material world. I saw both decay and a dying civilization clinging to rebuilding a crumbling empire... but also beauty. All of these thoughts sent me into my first panic attack and forever changed my life. To channel these newfound emotions I decided to write 'Playground.' I wanted to keep the song simple, just like how it was back in those days."
On the EP, he continued:
"A Sterling Murmuration as a body of work is material from ten plus years ago. I then recorded these songs with my high school friends in Winnipeg but broke the record into a few different movements. Big Pharma was the first movement and this is the second.
The title 'A Sterling Murmuration' comes from the movement that a flock of birds do for safety from predators. They use this technique for other reasons such as warmth at night, also to exchange information about feeding areas. I feel very connected to this concept, I see it in humans and how we need a strong community to protect each other. isolation played a role in this body of work and is supposed to display the danger in isolating. while in this state we set ourselves up to be in harms way by outside forces but breaking out and embracing humility and community you can finally transcend into a healthy trajectory." |
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Earlier this year, Zoon shared his first EP of 2022, Big Pharma. His new 5-track EP is notable for its collaborations and features, expressly highlighting the musician's adept ability to experiment and constantly defy musical categorization.
The release of each of Zoon's new EPs follows the release of his critically acclaimed debut album, Bleached Wavves (which was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize in 2021). Recently, Zoon shared an Apple Music Home Session, featuring stripped-down versions of songs off Bleached Wavves and a cover of My Morning Jackets' "Sooner." The new session's description reads: "Recording with Michael Peter Olsen (who’s laid down strings for the likes of Drake, Arcade Fire, and k-os), Zoon remakes a pair of Bleached Wavves cuts—“Vibrant Colours” and “Light Prism”—as acoustic dream-pop hymns redolent of a coffeehouse Galaxie 500. But he still infuses them with just enough textural detail (shimmering strings and nature sounds on the former, noctural twang on the latter) to retain their essential otherworldly vibe."
Zoon is also celebrating back-to-back Polaris Music Prize Nominations, noting that Sewn Back Together (Arts & Crafts) by OMBIIGIZI, the widely praised and celebrated project Daniel shares with Adam Sturgeon from Status/NonStatus, has been short-listed. |
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ZOON LIVE
September 29 @ Diving Bell Social Club - Montreal, QC
November 26 @ Danforth Music Hall - Toronto, ON*
November 28 @Blu Martini - Kingston, ON*
November 30 @ Bronson Centre - Ottawa, ON*
December 1 @ Petit Campus - Montreal, QC*
* w/ The Rural Alberta Advantage
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