This is the latest instalment in what Toronto, Canada-based singer-songwriter Avi Engel famously calls not a series of songs but “one continuous song that will end when I die”. Seedhead continues to present a darkly beautiful version of neo-folk and ambience-coloured poetry. Spare, minimalist, and haunting, it chills like a film-noir soundtrack and warms with a hopeful message of organic renewal.
The recording begins with “Gaia Makes Soup”, referencing the ancient Greek mythic figure who represents Mother Earth. Engel’s clear voice becomes increasingly altered by doubles and shadow harmonies as the text unfolds. Gaia, impervious to attacks by unnamed assailants who “string me up” or “light me on fire”, calmly makes soup. I couldn’t help notice that the threats, especially the last one, sounded like the treatment historically given to “witches” or, as they really were, capable women who threatened powerful men.
The speaker in several tracks is personified as eternal nature. With the music starting in a tense diminished chord on the artist’s characteristic four-string guitar, with field recordings in the background, the speaker of “Petrified Forest” warns, “There’s nothing I won’t take from you.” Then, in “Tiny Blade”, the narrator intones, “I am a tiny blade / Swimming through time and space.” Often nature is sentient, giving warnings and sometimes reassurances.
Though on the surface Avi Engel is an acoustic guitar-slinging folk singer, their accompaniments yield riches when you dig deeper. The minimalist music uses mostly minor keys and pentatonic scales, which gives it the sense of being “old”. It has often been remarked that their music has an ancient or timeless sound that matches the ecological time scale of their themes.
Skilled on many instruments, Engel is known for playing obsolete instruments, including, as on this record, the gudok. Its eerie tones open the charming “Storm of Roses”. Modern versions of this bowed, stringed instrument from medieval Russia were reconstructed from archaeological fragments, which provides an apt metaphor for Engel’s musical approach. There is also a subtle and effective use of guest musicians playing the more contemporary cello, pedal steel, and bass clarinet.
Besides Gaia, the lyrics frequently reference Greek mythology. The especially rich “Garden of Earthly Delights” explores paradise, referred to as “Elysian Fields”, the mythic Greek version where only the worthy get to spend eternity. Unimpressed, the speaker expresses only that they are “cold and want to go home”. Engel also makes more contemporary references, for example, the Star Wars planet of Coruscant and the beachcombing girls of E. E. Cummings’s well-known poem “Maggy and Milly and Molly and May” stylized here as “Alice, Amelia, Mary, and Joan”.
Avi Engel’s Bandcamp lists 40 releases since 2004 from which I continue to sample. Each one was written, produced, and performed (along with a small group of specialist guests) by the artist, who also designs the package art. As “indie” has largely lost its meaning, Engel is a true independent artist. Thus, without the commercial engine of the music industrial complex, they remain somewhat below the radar.
They have received attention in PopMatters. Reviewing Hatching Under the Stars (2020), Justin Vellucci praised Engel’s “consistently breathtaking work”. More recently and more muted, Peter Thomas Webb, considering Too Many Souls (2024), noted that their work “demands commitment from the listener towards its particular vision”. I can agree with both of these judgments. This is accomplished music.
According to Engel on their Facebook page, some listeners have found their work “slow” and “confounding”, which don’t sound to me like criticisms. Their music does take its own time and unfolds with its own logic. Look elsewhere for three-minute pop tunes. The texts are especially rich and do repay close reflection, which would seem to be the other side of the “confounding” coin.
Avi Engel, who has also recorded under the names Avi C. Engel and Clara Engel, has built a large body of work upon a few simple principles: fierce independence, painstaking attention to detail, and full commitment to a unique vision. With Seedhead, this very long song continues to unfold as it should.