The Pale Air Singers is, or rather was, a collaborative projects between Calgary’s The Cape May and Victoria’s Run Chico Run. Recorded in two sessions, one in each bands home town, their self titled debut record is the result of a mostly improvised recording process. As a result the record sounds loose and dream like, arpeggiated guitars intertwining with a swagger, muted horns fading in and out of the mix and understated harmonies from the numerous vocalists.Clocking in at just under half an hour over it’s nine tracks the album deals with songs of fate, bar room violence and jailbreak. While some of the tracks have a narrative, like the music, it is far from straightforward. Opener “Convict Escapes” uses chain gang handclaps while a delicately picked guitar line slides and wonders around in the background. There is a sparse beauty to the song, particularly when the horn section breaks down and the band hit a perfect three part harmony. The lilting melody and fluid guitar parts are reminiscent of the criminally underrated Kingsbury Manx. 'Cubby, He Chopped Me Down' makes use of Run Chico Run’s dubby delayed synths and electronics and insistent drums as Cape May vocalist Clinton St. John imparts the tale of the convict killing the husband of the woman he has been sleeping with, while 'The Last of Jim Prior' sees him going to his death at the gallows, a funereal accordion and piano roll as the convict faces up to his future: "Hey don’t pity me/ this soon will be over...no more are the cops/ no more are there enemies.” While the other tracks here don’t tie in particularly with the central narrative, they share the same themes- running from fate, unrequited love and lives falling apart. The Cape May seem to be the more dominant factor on these recordings, giving the proceedings a flowing folk basis, while Run Chico Run’s more frantic synth and keyboard approach really comes to the fore on the driving ‘Horse Trade’ and ‘Reeling Mind, Glistening Face’ where their rolling piano lines and panned symbols drive the track forward with a sense of urgency. Elsewhere they contribute burbling electronics but it is the way the two bands vocal talents intertwine and the playful harmonies that really is the making of the record. The chiming ‘Alomeia’ marks the halfway point of the album, and marks the point where the collaboration truly clicks, the delicate harmonies underpinned by shuffling rhythms and single line guitars, by bass player Matt Flegel’s anchoring the whole thing with his subtle, melodic bass playing. It is a perfect spaced out pop song; something about the lyric "You got me kicking in the sandbox, looking in the dead streets, what a long long way to go" seems to stick in your head for days- a near perfect expression of the feeling of trying to reach someone who is no longer within your grasp.With Flegel’s other band, Women, on a seemingly constant touring schedule it remains to be seen whether The Pale Air Singers will be a one off collaboration or a continuing project. On the strength of this blissed out and sinister debut we can only hope for the later. 81%Pale Air Singers on MySpace