The National Parcs: Timbervision
September 2007 Reviewed by: Joseph Taylor Format: DVD/CD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The National Parcs are a collective that grew out of the work of Vincent Letellier, a.k.a. Freeworm, a Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist who has integrated natural sounds from the outdoors into his recordings. For his two CDs, Vegetation=Fuel (2000) and Solar Power (2003), he used sounds he recorded in the forests of Quebec. Letellier also created his own samples and other electronic effects to produce unusual but humanistic music that expressed his strong environmental concerns. For the National Parcs, Letellier is joined by Chimwemwe Miller on percussion and vocals and Ian Cameron on video. Cameron deserves the one-third credit. It’s the DVD of Timbervision that is innovative and compelling, and, according to the band, recording the videos became the starting point for many of the songs.

That’s not to say the music itself is predictable or can’t stand on its own. A canny mixture of hip hop, electronica, and world music, Timbervision is witty, memorable pop that marries the throbbing beat of urban life to the organic sounds of the outdoors to produce a message of global interconnectedness. While clearly the result of hard work and dedication to craft, Timbervision is fun and it has a light touch. Even those not normally attracted to hip hop may be surprised at how much they enjoy Miller’s poetic flights. A wonderfully light sense of humor, both aural and oral, pervades Timbervision. On "Twelve Word Song" they sing, "Timber left for dead / is what we used to make the sounds," while a chainsaw revs in the background.

The recording on the CD is fine, but the PCM two-channel sound on the DVD has much higher resolution, and the elements of the songs, especially percussion, have much stronger impact. You can feel the kick drum thump on "Walk the Walk" in your gut. Actually, the video shows Cameron stepping on a drum pedal attached to the side of an overturned canoe on land, and I believe that may be the sound he ended up recording for the kick drum. "Interlude 1," one of four interludes on the DVD that are not included on the CD, shows Letellier banging on an abandoned bulldozer with sticks and drum mallets. Clever editing turns his random beats on various parts of the machine into a terrific and very amusing percussive display that gives you some idea of how the National Parcs arrive at the sounds on Timbervision.

The Timbervision DVD was filmed in HD near the Letellier family’s home in LeParc de la Vrendrye in Quebec. It contains some beautiful footage of the country there, including a wide-angle shot of a lake with the evening mist floating over it. The National Parcs are smart enough to let us enjoy that shot for a nearly a full minute before they segue into the shore and start "Walk the Walk."

The packaging and the DVD menu on Timberland are a bit too clever to be practical. The artwork on the CD case is nicely done, but the song titles are too small to read easily and are placed awkwardly so they won’t interfere with the cover concept. The DVD menu features each of the band members giving you a menu choice, so you end up with each of them telling you each song title in lieu of a scrollable menu. Since the song sequence on the DVD is different from the CD’s and there are additional tracks, things can get a little confusing. No matter. Timberland is enjoyable, witty, and, for all its inventiveness, heartfelt.

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