Pilgrims Of The Mind (Live / CAN)

Vancouver / Canada

Vancouver based Stephane Novak, aka ‘Pilgrims Of The Mind; is a legend of the Canadian underground, who initially came to prominence in the 1990s with his cult-classic album “What’s Your Shine?:. The album blends together progressive house, dub, breaks, downtempo, jazz and electronica into cosmic groovers as unexpected and dramatic as the Northwestern coastline.

Novak grew up in Montreal, where he trained as a jazz musician before moving West in the early 90s. He quickly fell in love with the Vancouver's natural beauty (and penchant for hallucinogens) and, as Ciel documents in her liner notes to the 2018 reissue of the album, spent his "spare time [looking] for spoken word samples on yoga albums, drum and instrument breaks from crackly mondo records." You can hear a sense of whimsy and wonder on the chillout centerpiece, the ten-minute, "Sandcastle." Over a meandering breakbeat, the track unwinds like a drive along the coast as constellations of melody—a sax here, guitar there—come into focus briefly, before being swallowed up again into a haze of dub effects.

While it's made from shades of green—both of the pine and cannabinoid varieties—What's Your Shrine? is no mere chill-out album. Take "Nothing Can Pull Us Apart." The track was previously licensed for a Ministry Of Sound The Chillout Session compilation in 2001. But the track stands apart from the sort of generic sunset, sunscreen and spritz fare that CD was aiming for. Yes, the breakbeat is chunky and the chords are Balearic enough, but the synths are occasionally chilling, almost creepy.

It's Novak's appetite for that kind of zany stylistic risks that elevates What's Your Shrine to a more rarefied air. completely willing to take those sorts of risks. As he described the album in a recent interview, "I took getting lost in music seriously, but never took myself too seriously. I always wanted to have fun and explore. I think that comes across and is appealing.”