Acorn finds new direction with “No Ghost”

The Acorn found fame with their 2007 release Glory Hope Mountain, which was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize. Now they’re back after an extended break with a new album No Ghost, and will be coming to a venue near you. 

Rolf Klausener, the band’s singer/songwriter/guitarist, says the Acorn originally began as a home recording project.

“It’s been a long process over the last seven years going from electronic to bedroom recordings to full band to multi-percussional concept albums about my mom to where we are today.”

The album Klausener is referring to is Glory Hope Mountain, the Acorn’s second full length album, a concept album about Klausener’s mother Gloria Esperanza Montoya, who was born in Honduras. The album was nominated for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize, but lost to Caribou.

After being on the road for three years - including being hand picked by Calexico to tour with them in 2008 on their Carried to Dust US tour, and touring with the likes of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and Elbow - the band spent two years recording Glory Hope Mountain, and then decided to take a break.

They rented a cottage in northern Quebec for three weeks where they wrote their latest album No Ghost.

“We wrote No Ghost as a group which was the first time we had done that and it was an interesting concept for me because I don’t typically write lyrics around the rest of the band,” explains Klausener over the phone from Ottawa.

“It was almost like - it doesn’t sound like a jazz record but we basically spent a lot of time improvising tracks and then using those improvised tracks as a basis for the songs.”

The Acorn will be touring No Ghost in the near future where they will be bringing the cottage in Quebec to the fans, literally.

“We’re really excited because we brought the cottage with us. We’ve actually brought like a whole cottage set with lamps and walls and needle point paintings and drawings and stuff. We’re excited about bringing this little cottage project to Winnipeg, it’s going to be a hell of a dance party!”

You can see the Acorn live at the Park Theatre on Wednesday, Oct. 27. Doors at 7:15 p.m., show at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $13 in advance, or $17 at the door.