Pigeon Breeders & Ghost Cars is the collaboration between Will Scott and Myles Bartel (Pigeon Breeders) and Matthew Belton (Ghost Cars), formed in 2019. Both projects are based in Edmonton, Alberta and have been notable acts in the experimental music community, since their respective formations – Pigeon Breeders in 2011, Ghost Cars in 2006. As a collaboration, they blend their influences to create an auditory whirlwind with elements of ambient, free improvisation, sound collage, psychedelic rock, and more.
Their first full-length album, Stasis, explores a slow decay of identity, habit, and connectedness and offers an ember of perseverance. The album was recorded over August and September of 2021 and followed the release of the July 19 2020 EP. As with previous releases by both projects, the source material was created out of free improvisation sessions. What sets Stasis apart is a more intensive selection process than on previous albums. The group experimented with and distilled 3 hours’ worth of material in order to reveal the essence of those sessions and the project’s unique dynamics.
Stasis will be available on October 27, 2022 in digital format on streaming platforms, and as a cassette from Pseudo Laboratories.
Pigeon Breeders was formed as a trio in 2011. Steeped in the burgeoning Edmonton noise/experimental music community, they developed a unique blend of ambient, electroacoustic, free improvisation, noise, and psychedelic music; their work has been described as “gently unsettling washes of sound … intelligent, beautiful sonic art”.
Their improvisatory nature has lead to collaborations with artists from a variety of mediums, including: filmmaker Lindsay McIntyre; Mile Zero Dance Troupe; Calgary’s Jung People; Brooklyn’s Nate Wooley; Nickelas Johnson (Smokey & The Feelings, Field & Stream), Devin Friesen (Bitter Fictions), Sean Macintosh (Zebra Pulse, Gary Debussy), Liam Trimble (Diamond Mind), Kevin Gaudet (Mercy Funk, Mortillery), Matthew McKenzie (Taiwan), and Connor O’Brien (Flint).
They have performed at numerous festivals in Western Canada including Sled Island, New Music Edmonton’s Now Hear This, Casse Tette, Innovāre Accord, Bermuda, and Endless Bummer. Their music has been played on multiple campus stations across the country, and regularly charts on CJSR’s Top 30. Their 2013 album Oblique Temperatures was added to Edmonton Public Library’s Capital City Records local music collection. In 2015 they were listed on GigCity.ca’s 10 Edmonton Bands Pushing the Envelope.
Their back catalogue includes digital and physical releases on Edmonton’ Ramshackle Day Parade, Double Lunch Records, Sweety Pie Records, and Capital City Records, and Calgary’s Shaking Box Music.
In August 2016 co-founder Tyler Harland relocated to Halifax, NS, and subsequent live performances featured a guest third member in the group. The following year, Pigeon Breeders released Live At Skymall on Double Lunch Records and Sweety Pie Records. The cassette featured two live performances at the Edmonton house venue Skymall, with one side featuring the original lineup and the other side featuring remaining members with guest third member Smokey.
In 2019, Pigeon Breeders released the Familiar Traces EP featuring recordings of the original trio lineup. Later that year, they began performing with Ghost Cars as Pigeon Breeders & Ghost Cars.
“Their walls of sound will overwhelm your consciousness and induce an introspective and illuminating listening experience.”
– Sled Island
“One of the more meditative crown-jewels of Edmonton’s experimental/free-improv scene.”
– David Ferris (Weird Canada)
“Edmonton’s kings of drift, this trio has honed in on a compelling mixture of liberally-effected guitars, assorted amplified junk and household objects, and electronics.”
– Chris Dadge (Bug Incision, Lab Coast)
“The sounds they create can often seem otherworldly and you can imagine what might be heard at the outer reaches of the solar system or on an alien planet.”
– Cups N Cakes
“Gently unsettling washes of sound … intelligent, beautiful sonic art”
– Oliver Arditi
Pigeon Breeders 