Origin & Echo

David Sheppard first conceived Snow Palms as a vehicle for music played on mallet instruments (metallophones, glockenspiels, xylophones, marimbas, etc), devices that have featured intermittently across almost two decades-worth of the multi-instrumentalist's miscellaneous collaborative projects that include State River Widening, Ellis Island Sound, The Wisdom of Harry and Phelan-Sheppard, among a host of others. Snow Palms' 2012 debut album Intervals won a sheaf of approving notices for it's ineffably cinematic blend of polyrhythmic percussion and richly melodic orchestration, partly achieved in collaboration with arranger-composer Christopher Leary (aka Ochre). Two years in the making, the follow-up builds on the foundations of it's predecessor, with a heavy quotient of metallophones, glockenspiels and marimbas at it's core, but largely eschews the latter's chamber arrangements in favour of soaring synth-scapes and a palette of spectral ambient and electronic textures.