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MUSIC


JIM HURCOMB


COLIN WYLIE


The Ottawa Valley Church


of Sound The music that filled Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity on a chilly


November night in 1987 was achingly beautiful and solemn. As far as church officials knew, the ensemble was called the Timmins Family Singers, and they were recording a Christmas special for radio in the sacred hall. In reality, the band was called The Cowboy Junkies, and they were working on their second album in this unusual setting. The record would be titled “The Trinity Session”, and it would turn the


Cowboy Junkies into one of Canada’s hottest bands. And it’s fair to say the recording venue was just as important as the music itself. The acoustics lent the record an ambience and richness that was palpable even on the car radio. It’s a secret that Montreal’s Arcade Fire would replicate on two of their albums, “Neon Bible” and “The Suburbs”, both recorded at a renovated church in Farnham, Ontario, called the Petite Eglise. Of course music has always been a core element of the church


experience. While I may not have paid attention to the sermons I attended at St. Matthew’s Church in the Glebe as a kid, the sound of the church organ always jolted me out of my daydreams. The sound was huge and vibrant, filling the room and lifting to the heavens. Colin Wylie calls that “a wet sound”, as opposed to the “dry sound” of a


standard recording studio. He has known both, as a performer and producer in the 90’s, and now as a producer, musician and owner of Old Church


46 BOUNDER MAGAZINE www.bounder.ca


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