Abigail Lapell - Stolen Time

Just listen. Toronto songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abigail Lapell offers this prompt at the end of synesthetic piano tune “I See Music”, but the invitation could apply to her entire fourth album, Stolen Time. Produced by Howard Bilerman at Hotel2Tango in Montreal, Stolen Time is elemental and powerfully evocative, channeling natural imagery and the revolving seasons to take a longer look over decades and generations, ultimately delivering up the present moment the way only the best music can.  

Stolen Time strikes a balance between Lapell’s acoustic debut, Great Survivor, and her two rockier Chris Stringer-produced records Hide Nor Hair and Getaway, while bringing a live off the floor 70s folk rock vibe and more structural experimentation to the table on songs that feel expansive in their scope -- unhurried, psychedelic and other-worldly in the vein of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. It also marks the collaborative meeting of two important music communities for Lapell, who spent formative years in Montreal’s Mile End before returning to her hometown: From Toronto, Dan Fortin (bass), Dani Nash (drums, vocals), Christine Bougie (lap steel, guitar) and Rachael Cardiello (viola); and from Montreal Katie Moore (vocals), Chris Velan (vocals), Pietro Amato (French horn) and Ellwood Epps (trumpet); Nashville pedal steel player Fats Kaplin and Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee also play on the album.