A HISTORY IN SONG
Musician’s family connection to LeBreton Flats inspires folk duo’s new album
Until her great aunt’s 100th birthday party, Ottawa musician Olenka Bastian never spent much time thinking about LeBreton Flats, that forlorn expanse of land along the Ottawa River west of Parliament Hill.
But then a woman at the party got up to thank Great Aunt Maria and her husband for giving her a place to stay when she came to Canada. She said she would have been a street kid if not for their establishment, the Duke Hotel.
It wasn’t the first time Bastian had heard of the Duke, but it was the first time she got a sense of its role in the community of immigrants who called the Flats home in the years before the land was expropriated and the buildings razed, supposedly in the name of redevelopment. (More than 50 years later, most of the land is still empty, and a new hockey arena may or may not be built there.)
“After the Second World War, my great aunt and her husband owned the Duke Hotel and it was a place of comfort for many Ukrainian immigrants. They heard they could go there and be fed and find a safe haven within its walls,” said the singer-songwriter, who is one-half of the indie folk duo Silent Winters with musical partner Jonathan Chandler. Both are also members of the six-piece Ottawa band Amos The Transparent.
“To me, it struck a chord because as a second-generation Canadian I’m not far removed from it. I’m so grateful for what my grandparents went through to get us here, and I think that resonates with a lot of immigrant families.”
Bastian, who is active in Ottawa’s Ukrainian community, became fascinated by the long-lost neighbourhood and began researching the history of the Flats. She soon discovered An Acre of Time, the 1996 book about the Flats by Ottawa author Phil Jenkins. It was a
valuable resource.
About a year ago, Chandler wrote Turn Out The Lights, the first song inspired by the stories they were hearing.
“Everything I learned about it was through Olenka telling stories of her grandparents completely uprooting and leaving everything behind,” Chandler says. “That was the focus I took in songwriting, rather than the actual geographic location.”
With help from a Canada Council grant, the pair wrote and recorded an entire album of songs inspired by the history of LeBreton Flats. The Duke Hotel is the second recording for Silent Winters; it comes out Friday.
Silent Winters was originally conceived as a solo project for Bastian, who went to bandmate Chandler for recording help. But after years of singing alongside Bastian in Amos the Transparent, Chandler wanted to be part of it, too.
“Ever since we met, we always daydreamed about something a little more pared-down, that wasn’t focusing on six-person arrangements and six people’s schedules,” Chandler said.
Sure enough, the pair’s tightly woven vocal harmonies are at the heart of the new album, which was produced by singer-songwriter-producer Jim Bryson in his Stittsville-area studio. To capture their connection, Bryson insisted they sing together, instead of recording each person’s voice separately and mashing them together later.
“Every word on the new record, we were in different rooms staring at each other,” Chandler said. “It was a great approach. So many people record first and fix it later.”
“He really challenged us as a duo to get more in tune with each other,” Bastian added.
The result is a beautifully spare group of songs that explore the quieter end of the musical spectrum, the same space occupied by the likes of Simon and Garfunkel or the Milk Carton Kids. Instrumental accompaniment is minimal, consisting of acoustic guitar, violin, upright bass and drums, and the two voices merge into one comforting sound.
With just two people to fit on a stage and no overabundance of decibels, the duo is finding an appreciative audience on the house-concert circuit. For their CD-release concert, however, they’ve booked the Gladstone Theatre, and are bringing extra personnel on violin, bass and drums. Acre of Time author Jenkins will also do a reading.
Perhaps not surprisingly, one of Silent Winters’ biggest fans is Bastian’s father. “He cannot keep a tear away when he hears us sing any of it," she says.