Ghostkeeper 
Multidimensional Culture

Multidimensional Culture is a dreamy, soulful nest where everything that makes Ghostkeeper unique has come to live in harmony.

Writing about their 2017 release Sheer Blouse Buffalo Knocks, I called Ghostkeeper’s music “spiritual music in the loosest, most abstract sense of the word. Its geographic centre may be Northern Alberta, but its mystical core can’t be found on any mortal plane.” So it’s not all that surprising that after a five-year break, the band is back with a record called Multidimensional Culture that further blurs the borders between here and there. Their work has always been about abstractions of time and space, sound and style, as exemplified on their 2010 self-titled sophomore album, but Multidimensional Culture suggests that Ghostkeeper has sharpened its focus and found itself a cozy and comfortable home.

Since their last album, core members Shane Ghostkeeper and Sarah Houle started a family. They became parents, so it’s no wonder their musical musings have turned towards more critical existential questions, anticipating some of the conversations every parent will have with their children at some point in their lives. “Ancestral” speaks to the challenges of maintaining connections to the past in the face of cultural suppression and discrimination: “Let these bodies know that we exist for one another / this is a reckoning of truth and perception / A smooth redemption / Now let me work that dial and get some clear reception.” “This is How I Know You” is a tender prayer for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls that asks for spiritual guidance for healing. 

At its heart, Multidimensional Culture is as delicate and warm as it is unflinching and unapologetic. Musically, it’s as avant-garde and abstract as we’ve come to expect from Ghostkeeper. With its refracting blend of genre and musical traditions, Multidimensional Culture is a dreamy, soulful nest where everything that makes Ghostkeeper unique has come to live in harmony.