5 albums for you from 2026 so far

Here are five Canadian albums that have stayed with me through this season since they came out:

• A rising saxophonist moves home to Vancouver with his Montreal session in the can
• A two-and-a-half hour ambient project moves like a live show
• 12 years of living later, a songwriter picks up right where her band left off
• Collective leadership, activism, and birdcalls unite via the perfect record label
• Longstanding Quebecois piano trio mates go crystal-clear hi-fi

Lucas Dubovik - Doob's Day Off

Tenor saxophonist Lucas Dubovik immediately fit in as an active straight-ahead player as soon as he returned from his years in both Toronto and Montreal. This album is from the latter city and is a no-doubt swinger after the genre changeups of his previous record, Quarterlife. It's my first time hearing guitarist Nick Semenykhin, who leads off the album with long, thoughtful lines and a tone in the vein of Peter Bernstein, David Blake, or Chris Fraser. Dubovik's originals sit nicely alongside a couple repertoire pieces, my favourite being the ballad "A Handful of Stars", where you can hear him do that thing where saxophonists seem to enunciate lyrics with their inflections. He later plays "Giant Steps" in brief duo with his longtime collaborator, drummer Jacob Wutzke; and ends with "Let's Go Picnic on the Moon" at a medium swing, letting bassist Levi Dover cook ceaselessly with Wutzke. (Streaming only)

Meredith Bates - The Observer Effect - Books I & II

Composer and violinist/violist Meredith Bates' home biome is still very much like mine here on the mainland, because I'm unsure as I walk around my city if the birds are on her field recordings or above my own head, or both. With a runtime over two hours just like Bates' last record Tesseract, The Observer Effect is ambient and alive. The sustained pitches of its three longest tracks are tidal breaths in and out, not mere drones. On Book I's long pieces, multidisciplinary electronic artist Scott Morgan, known as Loscil, joins Bates in rendering soundscapes that feel like live takes. Then, alongside two interludes, there are two more medium-length pieces: "love" on Book I featuring Chris Gestrin's melodic synth, and "binding" which finally unleashes a groove in seven featuring percussionist Curtis Andrews. This project doesn't bear itself to me, but it leaves me excited to continue getting to know it each time we meet. (phonometrograph, CD)

The Abramson Singers - Anything You Could've Been

The fact that this short record plays so cohesively back-to-back with 2013's Late Riser (and retains bandmates like Tyson Naylor and Dan Gaucher) speaks not to a lack of evolution but how mature Leah Abramson's work has always been. It remains hyper-literate Millennial indie rock and still features her own overdubbed vocals, but there's more heft in the bass now, more keyboard pads than strums and jangles. Back on the self-titled 2010 record, "Nemesis" was a vaguely Celtic 93 seconds and a couple lyric stabs. Now "Nemesis II" is 3:44, a multi-sided dialogue, and a refrain you'd never think would work if you saw it written down. The opener's lyrics are a wonderful show-don't-tell for "my kid wrote these". Anything You Could've Been is a new essential release by a member of the sub-scene cohort older than mine; they've consistently taught me how to make embodied art and be in community with your people. (digital-only)

Bellbird - The Call

The Montreal-based collective of former Vancouver stars Eli Davidovici and Mili Hong plus saxophonists Allison Burik (whom I always enjoy hearing on bass clarinet as well) and Claire Devlin have expanded beyond their debut to make moves you can no longer capture on a plain lead sheet. The title track and others draw from analysis of bird calls: research they conducted around an artist residency. There's no rhythm section in Canada like Davidovici and Hong. Yes, this record has a noticeably compressed sound off the top, but that only foreshadows how loud they're going to rock at the heights of tracks like "Blowing on Embers", dedicated to a free Palestine. The groove of "Eternity Perspective", the jazz waltz cooldown of "Phthalo Green", and the three-chord rock of the title track make for a dynamic, diverse set of chordless quartet. And to put it out on this label connects them to sympathetic values throughout Canadian music history. (Constellation Records, CD & LP)

Emie R Roussel Trio - TERR

Since 2013, Quebecois pianist Emie's trio with bassist Nicolas Bédard and drummer Dominic Cloutier has produced five albums. This one finds new clarity with Bédard on solely electric bass, both literally (the tone from the P-bass universe has a hi-fi sparkle) and otherwise. Whereas the previous albums lined up "jazz" tunes next to "crossover" ones, Emie's harmony now moves all together toward pop tunes, like on the closer "Klara Färdiga Gå" or on the opening title track, which could easily rock out as an instrumental next to Luba's "Everytime I See Your Picture". I didn't catch who plays the Metheny-esque guitar feature on "Lueur des feuilles oubliées" or if that's a synth in perfect camo, like how Emie's synth solos appear throughout to vary the instrumentation. The capture and mix of all three musicians, dynamically driven by Cloutier's sensitive touch on the kit, is gorgeous: they have infinite headroom to swell into their emotions. (UNI musiqc, CD)