Apollo Suns - Departures

  by Dave Goodwin

published: 25 / 10 / 2023

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Ed Durocher is the brainchild behind the nine-piece instrumental collective from Winnipeg, Manitoba known as Apollo Suns. Dance-floor driven, they tend to fuse jazz, rock and psychedelic music, to create their own unique sounds and have self-released three LPs – ‘Each Day a Different Sun’ from 2017, ‘Dawn Offerings’ from 2019 and ‘A Relationship of Force’ from 2021. In fact they have got so good at it they have picked up awards such as ‘Instrumental Artist of the Year’ at the Western Canadian Music Awards in both 2018 and 2020 ,as well as captivating audiences at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, Big Fun Festival, Vermont Jazz Fest, and Calgary Stampede. Last year Apollo Suns returned to the studio with Juno award-winning producer Ben Kaplan (Five Alarm Funk, Mother Mother, The Rare Americans) to record ‘Departures’ having signed to Canadian label Do Right Music, home to The Souljazz Orchestra, Soul Motivators and Luvmenauts. The heart of the group, as well as founder Ed Durocher (Guitar) also includes Tim Iskierski (Drums), Erika Einarson (Percussion), Bryn Herperger (Bass), Garrett Malenko (Trumpet), Benjamin James Hill (Trombone), Aaron Bartel (Bari Sax) and Anatol Rennie (Keyboards/Synths). This outing starts with ‘Through the Woods’ which sounds like an 80’s sci-fi soundtraseen.ck. There is a groove to be had hidden in here. ‘Hard Time’, ‘Fonxy’ and ‘Serpentine’ are brass led bouncers, while ‘Crybaby’ is a movie intermission masterpiece, ‘Horses’ is more of a guitar ridden beauty with a long solo at the start before the bassline kicks in, as is the ‘Starsky and Hutch’= sounding ‘Triptych’. On the slower side, the aptly named ‘Midnight in Winter’, ‘The Aeronaut’ and the end track ‘Beyond the Woods’ calm it all down considerably. Their new single is placed half way down the track listing – ‘Pluto’ has become a fan favourite at their live shows due to its heavy horns, dynamic groove, and catchy melody. I am not a great fan of instrumentals but I enjoyed this a lot. I have the promo CD but I am told the vinyl version that sports the full artwork by Samantha Schultz is a sight to be seen.

Track Listing:-

1 Through the Woods
2 Sisyphus
3 Crybaby
4 Horses
5 Pluto
6 Midnight in Winter
7 Hard Time
8 Fonxy
9 The Aeronaut
10 Serpentine
11 Triptych
12 Beyond the Woods

Band Links:-

https://www.apollosuns.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/apollosunsmusic/
htps://twitter.com/ApolloSunsMusic

Play in YouTube:-

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