Chapel Sound Turns Four, and It's Just the Beginning

Photo by: David Fluharty

Chapel Sound and VAL

Last Friday was Chapel Sound’s 4th year anniversary celebration at Vancouver Art & Leisure. Chapel Sound is a local collective featuring mostly musicians and visual artists, all focused on building a cohesive, local community of creators. Since their beginnings four years ago, they have built a massive local reputation for putting on high quality shows at underground venues, clubs, and DIY events. The collective stands by the mandate to “push creative expression forward without boundaries or prejudice.” Vancouver Art & Leisure, a space dedicated to presenting art in radicle, unconventional ways, was the perfect venue for putting their work into action. VAL promotes their philosophy through a wide range of projects and events, including musical performances, studio shows, guest speakers, and so on.

Photo by: David Fluharty

The Vibes

Featuring a diverse lineup, the event had musicians and visual artists curating an experience that took up multiple rooms or spaces. While most events tend to confine you to a single space, this celebration allowed participants to float among two main halls for music, as well as colorful spaces for lounging. The main space was geared more towards rotating DJs for most of the night, as well as a live performance by IMUR. The other room featured DJs, live acts, as well as some rap performances towards the end. The lineup lived up to the hype, with some of my favorites being Shaunic, Juelz, Tails, and IMUR. Their sets were a mixture of Chapel Sound favorites, experimental tracks, and their own production.

So Loki was the standout act of the night for me. Having never seen So Loki live before, their set was raw and gripping. A single white box was their stage, standing before a background of visuals to create a climate full of improvisation. Sam was boundless, shoeless, shirtless and free-styling. Geoff was insanity, delivering chopped up melodies and providing background vocals. So Loki’s dark, entrancing vocals were broken only by the lightness of their personality, calling a guest up to celebrate her with a personal performance of their song “Birthday”.

Chapel Sound’s events definitely give off a more inclusive feeling compared to most of Vancouver’s club nightlife. Their choice in roster drew participants from all sorts of backgrounds to the venue. You can count on Chapel Sound and Vancouver Art & Leisure for delivering more inspiring content in the future. This collective’s members and influence continue to grow in Vancouver and across Canada. Chapel Sound’s next event will be alongside Ryan Hemsworth on November 24th at Fortune Sound Club.