Purity, sweet longing, lone-ing your way across golden fields towards porcelain mountains one moment closer to home, all of this is captured in Calgary band The Dust Collectors’ recent song, “Alberta,” which – reflecting the unvarnished style of the band – was recorded in one day. The tune is a star gleaming within the band’s constellation of spread out, shimmering musical gems.

Formed by four friends in 2018, the group eventually attracted three more kindred spirits. It may seem counterintuitive that music created by a seven-piece outfit basks in stripped-down glory, but as each member contributes to songwriting and vocals the result harkens back to a much subtler CSNY. No courters of hubris, their original goal was “to get anything played on (Alberta radio treasure) CKUA,” something they crossed off their list after their first single was released in 2022 followed by a full-length album, Outside In, and a couple of EPs in 2023.

The songs rove over stories of passing time, waiting on spring, the murder of one lover by another, and being caught against the mirror of our own lives, over and over again. These tales offer scant yet precise detail and are told in such a visual manner they are like musical picture books.

-Mary-Lynn Wardle