He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms

A Silver Mt. Zion was formed by Efrim, Thierry and Sophie (all of GY!BE) at the beginning of 1999, and after a debut performance at Constellation's Musique Fragile concert series, the trio recorded this sublime debut record on 8-track at the Hotel2Tango in November of that year. Starting with simple, stirring piano themes written by Efrim, the music swirls and sways with multiple violin tracks from Sophie and plucked contrebasse from Thierry (his first recording on upright acoustic bass). What initially began as a single long, sparse chamber piece evolved into more fully-orchestrated movements, interspersed with tapes, drones and loops, along with some vocals. Guest musicians include Aidan (GY!BE, Exhaust, 1-Speed Bike) beating skins on "Sit In The Middle Of Three Galloping Dogs", and Gordon Krieger (Exhaust) and Sam Shalabi (The Shalabli Effect, solo) improvising on clarinet and electric guitar respectively on "Blown-Out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole". Additional taped fragments are from Efrim's archives, with contributions from Aidan. The resulting series of plaintive ensemble pieces shivers with intimate sadness. He Has Left Us Alone… is by far our most requested record for student film projects. Dedicated to Efrim's dog Wanda, who was dying of cancer while the album was made.

Efrim: piano, guitar, organ, radio, voice
Thierry: contrabass, electric bass
Sophie: violin, voice

Guests:
Aidan Girt: drums on TRACK 2; tapes on TRACK 8
Sam Shalabi: guitar on TRACK 7
Gordon Krieger: clarinet on TRACK 7

Recorded and mixed on 1/2" 8-track analog tape at Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango in Montreal by Efrim and Thierry, November 1999.
Mastered by Harris Newman.