Whisper & Shimmer

Our world is ruled by the brand-new. The most recent. The shiniest and the loudest. Never before in the history of music have songs become so old so fast. And so everybody in the music business keeps running until exhaustion, pursuing novelty in a never-ending race. But here at Son Canciones, we’ve decided it’s time to stop. To look back, and wait for the gems that have been left behind in this crazy race to nowhere. Some were left behind because of bad luck. Others because they simply didn’t make enough noise.

Whisper & Shimmer is a series of album re-releases of albums that have been unjustly forgotten. Songs that are too powerful to disappear. So we give them a second life. We blow off the dust, and we try to get the world to see how bright these gems really are.

BUY RECORDS

Justin Farren
Justin Farren is from Sacramento, California. He lives in a house that he built with his own two hands – or, as he likes to refer to it, “a living museum of my own mistakes”. During the two years it took him to build the house, he slept on couches and in the spare rooms of family and friends. And he wrote songs. He scribbled down lyrics and melodies while driving back and forth to The Home Depot, sanding dry wall, waiting in line at the city planning department and staring at unfamiliar ceilings, unable to sleep. And then he recorded them in various bedrooms, kitchens, hallways, garages, bathrooms and sheds. When the house was finally ready, he had also made a record. “Songs From Spare Rooms” is much more than just an album. It’s a home. Thirteen years after the album was originally released, we now release this extended and improved edition of Justin’s masterpiece. All of the songs were remixed by Justin in his shed, two previously unreleased tracks were added and the whole album was re-mastered by Eric Broyhill at Broyhill Masters, California.
Ethan Dwayne Bell
“It’s a hard life running from yourself,” the song “my captain” says. ethan dwayne bell (Texas, USA) knows all about running. At a very young age, he had already gathered more passport stamps than most of acquire us in our whole lives. He worked in a coffee shop in Seattle, in a Biergarten in Munich and in a library in Denton. He tried to get into the Peace Corps and then decided not to. All the while he wrote songs, home recorded them (wherever home was) and played shows under different aliases such as Ethan Bell Dips His Pen In The Company Ink or Ethan Bell Is An Asshole. One day ethan wrote a song that made him realize he wanted to live at sea. So he signed up to be a sailor and started travelling around the world on oil tankers, army boats and container ships. He would make mix tapes for the other sailors with his songs, and always titled them "our hearts will fail". After 11 years at sea, ethan came back ashore to watch his children grow up. For a few years, he drove around the US working as a truck driver. He now lives in Denton, Texas, where he homeschools his children while pursuing a career as an English teacher. He has never stopped writing songs. "our hearts will fail" contains a gourmet selection of some of the best and most significant songs ethan wrote between 2000 and 2007. The album is an intent to save these amazing songs and stories from oblivion and give ethan's genius the spotlight it deserves.
Me And The Horse I Rode In On
“It’s a hard life running from yourself,” the song “my captain” says. ethan dwayne bell (Texas, USA) knows all about running. At a very young age, he had already gathered more passport stamps than most of acquire us in our whole lives. He worked in a coffee shop in Seattle, in a Biergarten in Munich and in a library in Denton. He tried to get into the Peace Corps and then decided not to. All the while he wrote songs, home recorded them (wherever home was) and played shows under different aliases such as Ethan Bell Dips His Pen In The Company Ink or Ethan Bell Is An Asshole. One day ethan wrote a song that made him realize he wanted to live at sea. So he signed up to be a sailor and started travelling around the world on oil tankers, army boats and container ships. He would make mix tapes for the other sailors with his songs, and always titled them "our hearts will fail".

After 11 years at sea, ethan came back ashore to watch his children grow up. For a few years, he drove around the US working as a truck driver. He now lives in Denton, Texas, where he homeschools his children while pursuing a career as an English teacher. He has never stopped writing songs.
Julie Arsenault
Julie Arsenault is one of Canada’s best-kept secrets. The Toronto based singer has been whispering her tasteful melodies into the most gourmet ears for almost 10 years. Julie wrote songs because she had to. About her trouble with men, about her brutal battle against depression, about abortion, about her family. Raw confessions hidden behind melodies that are as sweet as the cakes Julie made at the bakery she worked at. In 2013 a car crash left her with a fractured skull and a paycheck from the insurance company. She decided to spend the money on recording some of her songs. She gathered a couple of friend musicians and headed to an old trailer that had been turned into a recording studio. The result left everyone speechless. And Julie, timid as always, let her friends convince her to make a Bandcamp account and put the songs out into the world. Without any promotion, any external help, any ambition apart from being heard by a handful of people who might understand her. But “The Creature That I Call Myself” quickly became a cult hit. A silent gem to be discovered amidst an avalanche of noise.

Six years later, we have the honor to offer “The Creature That I Call Myself” a second life with this extended edition including 4 extra songs Julie wrote more recently. And provoking the same goosebumps.