Audiopile Review: How does our relationship with art change as we age? Does it act as an anchor to our past, or a rope guiding us into the future? Ontario based musician and painter Andre Ethier returns with his fifth long play on Toronto mainstay Telephone Explosion records, with instrumentation from Joseph Shabason & Sandro Perri amongst others. A collection of songs about living in these times, looking at art, baseball, raising a family, suffused behind layers of poetic wanderings and abstract visions. A worthy addition to the recent bloom of Canadian Sophisti-pop, and a heavy tip for anyone enjoying the recent folk-outings of Wilkes & Gendel on Leaving Records. A quietly beautiful album that has many gifts for listeners if they’re open to receiving them.

It’s no coincidence that Cold Spaghetti, the title of André Ethier’s latest solo LP, is sure to recall Fresh Pepper, the seven-piece group he co-helmed with Joseph Shabason to produce a lone, self-titled 2022 album. Not only does the supporting cast of musicians on the current recording overlap with the aforementioned band’s personnel, there’s a key thematic link between the two projects, despite the fact that they contrast each other sharply in most other regards.