Scions features members from the award-winning minimalist chamber-jazz quartet New Hermitage, the Polaris-nominated drone-hymn duo Joyful Joyful, and the acclaimed producer and composer Michael Cloud Duguay. Their collaboration began at the Sappyfest music festival in Sackville, New Brunswick, in August 2022. During this event, New Hermitage and Joyful Joyful connected for the first time and teamed up with Duguay for an improvisational performance based on his songwriting. The enthusiastic response, capped by a standing ovation, solidified the ensemble's decision to pursue the project further, with Duguay deftly shifting from front-person to producer and musical director. Awarded a Canada Council project grant in early 2023, the group took residence in Hotel Wolfe Island on Wolfe Island, culling material from sunrise improv sessions and shaping it into a unique body of work that would later become To Cry Out In The Wilderness. In June 2023, the ensemble, joined by double bassist Gabriella Ciurcovich, recorded their debut album in Halifax. Led by Duguay’s distinctive approach to site-specific production, the recording took place at St. George’s Round Church, with engineering by Jake Nicoll using a solar-powered, mobile control room. The resulting album, To Cry Out In The Wilderness, finds the ensemble expertly exploring and powerfully combining their skills in jazz, devotional, classical, drone, folk, ambient, metal, improvisational, minimalist and avant-garde music. Their debut album ‘To Cry Out In The Wilderness’ was released on November 8 by idée fixe records.
