November 26th, 2009

Evening Hymns – (Out of This Spark)

Spirit Guides
Steve Guimond

Jonas Bonnetta lurks behind the long shadows of Evening Hymns. The Peterborough multi-instrumentalist troubadour presents his debut full-length, a quirky and rousing pop record created with the help of many of his friends, who just so happen to come from some pretty good bands: The Wooden Sky, Forest City Lovers, Ohbijou, The D’Urbervilles. Bonnetta conducts lessons in song influenced by folk, rock and country passions, easily gliding back and forth between larger and rousing ensemble numbers and quieter one-man-standing confessionals. Definitely worth checking out.

http://www.hour.ca/music/spin.aspx?iIDDisque=5757

Cedars

Review Of Evening Hymns’ Spirit Guides and giveaway

eveninghymns.comThey say you can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep, and nowhere is this more true than in the case of Peterborough’s Jonas Bonnetta, aka Evening Hymns, who first earned notice in these parts back in June opening up for Ohbijou. The liner notes of his second album, the just-released Spirit Guides, reads like a who’s who of the Bellwoods crew, including members of Forest City Lovers, Ohbijou and The Wooden Sky, to name but a few, and if you want to take that as an implicit “RIYL”, then you won’t be disappointed.

Throughout Spirit Guides, Bonnetta echoes the sounds of his peers – Ohbijou’s orchestral flourishes, the Wooden Sky’s rustic melancholy, Bruce Peninsula’s ghostly chorals, The Acorn’s nimble balancing of folk and rock – and as such, sounds and feels immediately comfortable to anyone who’s been following the sound of Toronto/southern Ontario over the last few years. Sublimated together, however, they form something that’s so cohesive and perfectly suited to the songs they adorn, that focusing on its familiarity is to miss the point entirely.

Wearing reverb like an early morning fog, Spirit Guides is the sound of Bonnetta wandering through the wilderness, both literally and allegorically, burdened by memory and regret and searching for salvation, shelter, something – anything. His voice is warm and worn, inherently a thing of the earth, but it still seeks to soar and when buoyed by the host of ethereal backing vocals, manages to do so. And for all the weightiness that’s implied, Spirit Guides is still every bit a pop record, full of wonderful melodies and hooks and, most importantly, the ability to make the deepest melancholia feel uplifting. It’s a lonely record that never feels alone. And though I didn’t realize it on initial listens, perhaps too busy playing “who does this remind me of”, it’s wholly remarkable and quite possibly essential.

http://www.chromewaves.net/2009/11/review-of-evening-hymns-spirit-guides-and-giveaway/

Evening Hymns
Spirit Guides
By Vish Khanna

On his debut record as Evening Hymns, Peterborough, ON’s Jonas Bonnetta harkens back to singer-songwriters of the early ’70s, evenly weaving narratives together in songs that operate well outside of populist frameworks. Few real hooks rest within Spirit Guides, a sprawling, contemporary folk record that possesses a temporal angst. As such, any visceral connection to Bonnetta’s expression is dictated by how much emotional engagement one can muster with his shifting, moody songs. There’s a ragged glory to the layered progression of “Dead Deer,” which begins with a folk shuffle before vocal punctuations and sweeping strings lift its wings. The whole of “Mtn. Song” simmers, promising a climax that never arrives, but the inkling is enough. On songs like “Broken Rifle,” Evening Hymns sounds like a lo-fi Jackson Browne, armed with abstracted personal tales that pulse with heart and soul. (Out of this Spark)

http://www.exclaim.ca/musicreviews/latestsub.aspx?csid1=139&csid2=870&fid1=42733