Canopy Glow is the fourth full-length album recorded by the Chicago, Il - based band, Anathallo

Anathallo

Anathallo was a band originally from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan and then based in Chicago, Illinois. The band started practicing in the fall of 2000 and played their first show soon afterward. Their name is derived from a Greek word meaning "to renew, refresh or bloom again."In 2006 Anathallo released...

. It was released on November 18, 2008 on CD and re-released on vinyl on May 26, 2009.

Background

After the release of their 2006 album Floating World, the band was offered a residency as the house band in a north Chicago neighborhood church called Berry United Methodist. A few members, worn out from the band's relentless tour schedule, chose not to relocate from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. The remaining members, including vocalist Matt Joynt and multi-instrumentalist Bret Wallin, recruited replacements and began work on what would become Canopy Glow.

By this point Anathallo had gained a reputation for unique instrumentals, orchestral arrangements, and as many as seven vocalists singing all at once. Having licensed a few songs from Floating World for television commercials, the band was financially secure enough to take a break from touring to write Canopy Glow at their own pace, using the church as their practice space. Female vocalist Erica Froman was brought on as a full-time member of the band at this time.

A lyric from "The River" lends the album its title, and the painting on the cover of the album depicts a deceased woman, apparently the victim of an accidental drowning. Matt Joynt recalls this story of Froman's mother during a hiking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail:

She was crossing a river and the current swept her away. Due to the weight of her pack, she couldn't get to a bank and was certain that she was going to die. Upon that realization, she leaned back, calmed her senses and enjoyed what she thought would be her last living moments... she observed everything with a concentrated mindfulness as she passed underneath the glow of light pouring through the canopy of leaves.

Though beginning with a song about Joynt's grandfather's funeral ("Noni's Field") and featuring this somewhat embellished account of a near-death experience Froman's mother endured, the album has a decidedly positive feel, reportedly influenced by the children seen through the church windows playing at the day care next door.

The song "Bells" was inspired by a chance finding the band members came across while rehearsing in the church during the writing process for "Canopy Glow":

After a few weeks, we noticed seven large black cases sitting in the corner. Lo and behold they were filled with hand bells! In our youth, Bret and I had played in the hand bell choir during Christmas services and weren't afraid to employ them on our record. -Matt Joynt

Recording

The band entered Engine Music Studios in Chicago in the Fall of 2007 to begin tracking Canopy Glow, with "friend-gineer" Neil Strauch directing the process. The band had experienced tension and stress while working on Floating World and were seeking a more relaxed envinronment to record in. Previous band member Andrew Dost, co-founder of the band fun. was called in as well as other friends and fellow musicians to contribute to the album bringing the total number of musicians to thirteen.

Cover Art

The band borrowed a portion of a painting called Temma on Earth by artist Tim Lowly

Tim Lowly

Tim Lowly is a Chicago artist, musician, and teacher. He is known for compassionate egg tempera pictures of children in mysterious circumstances.-Biography:...

 for use as the cover art for the album. The art piece itself is a huge eight foot by twelve foot acrylic gesso with pigment on panel currently on display at the Frye Art Museum

Frye Art Museum

The Frye Art Museum is an art museum located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, USA . The museum emphasizes painting and sculpture from the nineteenth century to the present. Its holdings originate in the private collection of Charles and Emma Frye...

 in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

.

Tim Lowly is married to pastor Sherrie Lowly from the Chicago church that Anathallo wrote the album in. Temma, the subject of the painting, is the Lowlys' daughter.

Track listing

1. "Noni's Field" - 4:36
2. "Italo" - 3:41
3. "Northern Lights" - 3:49
4. "The River" - 4:43
5. "Cafetorium" - 4:04
6. "Sleeping Torpor" - 5:29
7. "All the First Pages" - 5:17
8. "John J. Audubon" - 3:50
9. "Bells" - 4:44
10. "Tower of Babel" - 4:08