While this band is from Toronto, their music is better described in terms of their Wilderness of Manitoba namesake than of the noise-infected streets of their metropolitan environs. With delicate instrumentation that conjures images of vast expanses of untouched forest peppered with lakes and gently flowing streams, rich melodic layers reminiscent of endless wheat fields beneath endless skies, and with harmonies like a gentle prairie wind, When You Left the Fire is the perfect soundtrack to a rainy prairie day. It’s beautifully spacey dream-folk that’s perfectly lonesome in lyric and sound. It’s the long winter that just won’t leave, and then you realize that you want it to stay. Standout track Orono Park gets the album off to a rockin’ start and after its ethereal introduction, the haunting Hermit will linger long after it’s over.

Published in Volume 65, Number 6 of The Uniter (October 7, 2010)