All Hands Make Light, a collaboration between Montreal mainstays Ariel Engle (Broken Social Scene, La Force) and Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion), follow up their self-titled cassette release of 2021 with a cosmic debut LP for Constellation Records. Like their solar namesake, the compositions on Darling the Dawn are rich in potential energy and contemplative abundance. Engle and Menuck move fluidly between sounds from quiet to harsh and modes from elegiac to devotional, ultimately crafting a record that feels less like an exercise in syncretism than an escape from the gravity of genre altogether. The duo’s formidable talents seem especially suited to such a project. Engle’s voice, one of the most singular in Canadian rock, finds new textures amid Menuck’s grand, kinetic soundscapes. On the opener, “A Sparrow’s Lift,” Engle spins a simple lyric—“It’s not a dream / It’s real / I don’t have to know how I feel”—into a spiritual affirmation. In the rousing second act of the epic “We Live On a Fucking Planet and Baby That’s the Sun,” she reaches into her upper register for a yearning, polyrhythmic counterpoint to Menuck’s shimmering dirge. Befitting the group’s name, Darling the Dawn also welcomes new hands to the lift: Jessica Moss contributes string arrangements, and Liam O’Neill of Suuns adds drums. Together, All Hands Make Light have achieved a sort of blasted-out soul music that perfectly meets the moment—genuinely transcendent.
