Caribou in the wild: Where’s that David Attenborough voice-over?

It’s almost been a full year since Dundas, Ontario native Dan Snaith, a.k.a. Caribou, won the 2008 Polaris Music Prize for his album Andorra, but he’s still processing the experience.

“Last September was the exact end of being on a long tour, so that Polaris night was totally manic and crazy,” Snaith recalls from his adopted home of London, England.

“It’s still kind of surreal, but it was such an affirming experience, being chosen and meeting all of the other people who were nominated. I make music in such a bubble a lot of the time, so it was really nice to feel a part of a community of musicians.”

In the 10 years that I’ve known Snaith — we met when he passed me a CD-R of demos that would become 2001’s brilliant and beautiful Start Breaking My Heart, released under his then-moniker Manitoba — I’ve appreciated his commitment to community. It’s as apparent in Snaith’s donating part of his $20,000 Polaris booty to Canadian non-profits Ecojustice and the Stephen Lewis Foundation as it is in his maintaining close connections to long-time Dundas friends like Caribou guitarist Ryan Smith, Koushik and members of both The Russian Futurists and Junior Boys.

Now, Snaith is forming a 14-member community — including Koushik, Junior Boys’ Jeremy Greenspan, British pal Kieran Hebden, new Caribou bassist John Schmersal (of Enon), four drummers, a horn section, a choir and more — for two exclusive live performances under the banner of Caribou Vibration Ensemble.

The Ensemble is a far cry from Snaith’s early days as a solo laptop performer, or even from the three-to-four-piece band he’s played with over the last seven years. The larger group has been developing organically since Caribou was invited to perform at this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in Monticello, New York by co-curators The Flaming Lips.

“They’ve come to a couple of our shows, which was amazing because I’ve been a fan of their music since I was in high school,” says Snaith of the legendary alt-rockers. “They asked us for this ATP thing, but stipulated, ‘You’ve got to do something unusual.’ So we started thinking ‘What’s the thing that we’ve always wanted to do?’  

“As we tour, we’ve always been dependent, to a certain degree, on technology to supplement the fact that the records sound like there are lots of people playing on them, but generally there are only a few of us on stage. The obvious thing to do was to put a band together than can play every single part of every song.”

In both name and spirit, Caribou Vibration Ensemble relates directly to Snaith’s “favourite music in the world,” the spiritual free jazz created by large ensembles like Pharoah Sanders’ bands and the Sun Ra Arkestra. Extra exciting for Snaith and co. is the fact that current Arkestra leader Marshall Allen will join the Ensemble at their ATP festival date.

“The conversation [with Allen] has been as otherworldly as you’d expect and want it to be,” laughs a delighted Snaith. “It’s going to be a very surreal experience. It’s not going to unravel into completely free improvisation, but there will be some sense of the music taking on a life of its own.”

Following the two special shows (and Snaith’s Sept. 17 T.O. DJ date at Wrongbar), the producer will return to working in earnest on his next Caribou full-length, which he’s hoping to release next spring.

“The next album will sound very, very different,” he says, “with the big difference being that I’ve completely gotten rid of the ’60s psychedelic textural sound, that nostalgia thing. Once I feel like I can do something, it becomes less interesting to do it again.”

Fans of Snaith’s earlier, more obviously electronic music will be happy to know he’s also swinging back to club music as both a fan and a creator. We’ll soon be hearing Snaith’s remix of Cortney Tidwell’s “Watusii,” which he’s produced under the new artist name of Daphni.

“At the time, I was thinking that Caribou would continue being this kind of psychedelic-pop vehicle and Daphni would be more club-based music. Subsequent to that, the two streams have joined together more, so we’ll see what happens. I love that freedom in music.” 

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