While Portland folk pop collective Typhoon have more or less been on a hiatus since wrapping up their final White Lighter support tour in 2014. Of course, while the band takes the time to live their life and sow their wild oats, there's been the odd happening here and there: namely Typhoon's 10th Anniversary show, and frontman Kyle Morton playing the occasional show or embarking on various projects like teaming up with for a night of music accompaniment for poet Zachary Schomburg and flying to Iceland for Iceland Airwaves and playing a special set for Sofar Sounds. One such project saw Morton and Matthew Thomas Ross of Neighborhood Films collaborating on a short film called Book of Matches that the duo unveiled back in November of. Originally conceived as a sort of back and forth with Matthew Thomas Ross filming short minute long videos and sending them to Morton to soundtrack, these videos grew into a short film - a series of vignette linked by the beginning concept: "Upon my deathbed the spirit presents me with ten matchsticks. Each match, I am told, will recall a single moment of my life. Watch carefully, she tells me, and strikes the first".
For fans of Typhoon, such a concept isn't too far removed from Morton's usual songwriting subjects: the celebration of life lived and the acceptance of one's mortality but it's also new ground for Typhoon whose life-affirming brand of poignant pop music has largely been used to soundtrack things already made; not quite as collaborative as Morton's work with Matthew Thomas Ross here. The result is a work of beauty both in the presented visuals and in Morton's emotive offerings.
While the work was premiered back in November, the release of the project on one-side 12" limited edition vinyl with a digital download of the short film via Bughunt is as wonderful reason as ever to revisit the work, especially as the band is still in the nascent stages of songwriting for the next record.
You can order Book of Matches now.
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