Language Arts - Able Island (2015)

Able Island is the sophomore record by Language Arts – it’s dedicated to their home, Nova Scotia, and is inspired by the mystique of the feral Sable Island.


Recorded across Canada in a myriad of locations (bedrooms, basements, hotels, clubs, alleyways, cottages, etc.) it is DIY in its truest form. Produced by band members: Neil MacIntosh and Kristen Cudmore, they collaborated with Darryl Neudorf (Neko Case, The Sadies) on the mix.

The making of Able Island began in Nova Scotia, in a cottage on the Northumberland Straight and it continued as they made their way across Canada on their national tour. It features the ambience of homemade microphones, wind blowing down the stove pipe during a Nor’Easter, the crackling of the fireplace in the dead of winter, the voices of their audiences on the national tour, and reverb chambers made of large soup pots that they later cooked too much chilli in.

The songs are inspired by the sense of home and belonging. They touch on many deep sentiments like family roots and the mystery of the sea; loneliness and depression; the drifting between waking life and the fantasy of what life would be. A Sable Island carol.