Music Inspired the by Group of 7

In the fall of 1995, Rheostatics were asked by the National Gallery of Canada to write and perform a 40 minute piece of music honoring the Group of Seven's 75th anniversary.

With Kevin Hearn joining the band on piano and samples, they conceived the piece over two weeks and performed it at the Gallery Theater in front of projected paintings and era film footage of landscapes and the depression.

This mainly instrumental work (with the exception of "Northern Wish" and a few others) was created to evoke the melting landscapes and thrilling skies of the Group's cavalier artists (not forgetting Emily Carr and Tom Thompson) and their epochal nationalist movement.

Threaded throughout are the voices of Queen Elizabeth, MacKenzie King, John Deifenbacke, and newsy Lalonde, as well as a telephone conversation recorded by drummer/cellist Don Kerr with Victoria's Winchell Price, a fine painter of landscapes and skies and a wonderful storyteller.

This work was originally performed before a sold-out house on October 21st, 1995, and was later recorded for this CD at the Gas Station Studios in Toronto by Don Kerr and Rheostatics.