ETHIER, ANDRE - Under Grape Leaves (Sealed) (LP)

In Under Grape Leaves, a world emerges in and out of focus under the dappled green light of a backyard arbor. This collection of songs offers a kind of escape, but the invitation is less about checking out than it is about checking in. The record feels like a surreal and subtle manifesto for embracing radical domesticity in the midst of the modern storm, which here is just a distant synthetic rumble in the background. There are shifts in perspective and in landscape, from the rhythms of dishes knocking together in the sink to the space between the sea and the sea wall. Blending acoustic guitar with common household instruments like flute, recorder, and a drum machine, this feels homemade in the most literal sense. But this isn't to say that it the record doesn't come across as carefully constructed - the attention to detail is evident in each well considered line and in the whole project's wave-like flow.