Name: The Garden
Brand: Basia Bulat

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

SCR127LP

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-05-06

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0680341276014

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Total Cap

2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

Basia Bulat

Genre GB

Singer Songwriter

Label GB

Secret City

Basia Bulat is a Montreal based, Canadian folk singer/songwriter. Born on April 13, 1984 in Etobicoke, Toronto and raised in London, Ontario, she comes from a Polish heritage with her mother being a classical music teacher. Basia is known for her versatility as she plays various instruments including the piano, guitar, autoharp and zither.
In 2005, Basia released an independent EP simply titled "Basia Bulat". This caught the attention of Rough Trade who offered her a recording contract. In 2007, they released her album "Oh, My Darling" which was produced by *a284434*. Her third album "Tall, Tall Shadow" was released in 2013 and is said to have been inspired by the loss of a close friend.
If you enjoy artists such as Laura Veirs, Jenn Grant or Sarah Harmer among others like Amelia Curran and Alela Diane then Basia Bulat's unique sound will surely captivate you. With influences from folk to indie pop and beyond, Basia's heartfelt lyrics combined with her soulful voice create an enchanting musical experience.

Secret City Records is a Montreal-based independent record label and publishing company. With a label code of LC 30745, Secret City is dedicated to discovering and promoting talented artists from various genres. They provide a platform for musicians to showcase their unique sound and connect with music lovers around the world.
As an authoritative figure in the music industry, Secret City Records has built a reputation for releasing high-quality albums that resonate with listeners. Their diverse roster includes both established acts and emerging talents, ensuring a constant stream of fresh and innovative music.
With their commitment to supporting artists throughout their careers, Secret City Records offers comprehensive services such as artist development, marketing strategies, and distribution support. By fostering creativity and nurturing talent, they have become a trusted name in the independent music scene.

Introducing The Garden: a Strings album and a Retrospective from a room in Montreal with the windows open, and the wind moving, and the leaves changing, and a spring-coloured secret on the tip of Basia Bulat’s tongue. 

The band made it in a pandemic. Bulat and her old friend Mark Lawson, with whom she recorded the Polaris- and Juno-nominated album Tall Tall Shadow. Bulat and her husband, Legal Vertigo’s Andy Woods. Bulat and her friends Ben Whiteley, Zou Zou Robidoux, Jen Thiessen, John Corban and Tomo Newton, four fifths of whom form a string quartet, because did we mention this is a Strings album? Not a greatest hits but a re-configuration: a chance to record anew some songs that Bulat didn’t fully understand when she originally composed them, five or ten or fifteen years ago. As she first sang in 2006 — and again last fall, in that second-storey apartment: We gave away our hearts / before we knew what they were.

The Garden gathers fourteen string arrangements by three different arrangers (Owen Pallett, Paul Frith, and Zou Zou Robidoux), revisiting material from all five of Bulat’s studio albums. There’s Pallett’s interpretation of 2010’s Heart of my Own, calling back to the Béla Bartók compositions that marked Bulat’s high-school career as an upright bassist. There’s Frith’s Infamous, which turns 2016’s prickly kiss-off into something open-facing and generous. And there’s Robidoux’s reimagining of Are You In Love? — released just last year — which here becomes a whirling ballroom dance, full of discovery.

Bulat performs throughout, finding new feelings for old lines. Distance teaches; distance reveals things. “I sing the songs differently now,” she says. “It’s the gift of time.” Not just that: at the time of recording, Bulat had just found out she was expecting her first child. (Her daughter was born in April 2021.) She admitted it to her collaborators only in the midst of recording, down a wire from the vocal booth. “Hold it up to the light and let it grow,” Bulat sang once – and again that fall, as her body changed shape. “Tell me you’re always my only.” A song can change shape too — turning new leaves, growing new blooms, in unexpected seasons. You can play a record once; you can play it again. The Garden won’t wear out. It’s alive.

The Garden

Music GB

Buy Basia Bulat - The Garden (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.