Artist: Nick Kuepfer
Album: Rural Route No. 7
Label: Standard Form
Year: February 2011
Format: Mini-CDr (Limited Edition of 150)
Nick Kuepfer utilizes droning elements (some washes of guitar others hypnotizing, fast-moving samples) that bring to mind the vast, haunting wilderness in a cerebral way. Perhaps the desolation and sense of the outdoors apparent on Rural Route No. 7 can be attributed to the album having been recorded in a secluded house in the woods of Northern Ontario as well as a cabin in the Gatineau Region of Quebec.
Each track is something new, using different styles and samples. While the guitar in “A River” washes over the soundscape like a gentle wave on other tracks the guitar repetitiously and frantically meanders through forests in a lost desperation. “A Pursuit” is driven primarily by percussion accompanied by bows on strings and acoustic bass and ends the album off on an eerie note if there ever was one.
This release certainly gives Kuepfer the chance to flex his sound-making muscles. Unrelated sounds (like mountain goats, a choir, wolves and plucked guitar) are mixed well into “A Wave” to give a more exotic element to the record while the other tracks mentioned earlier exert the same ability to transport you to another place and time. Given a longer album I’m sure Kuepfer could craft an entire wild journey to take the listener smoothly from the loneliness of the wild, the fears of being alone and everything else that he must of felt while in the cabin in Ontario.
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