THE WRITING BIRDS leave behind a beautiful ghost.

In 2006 Fabrizio Siciliano “& Company” made an album as The Writing Birds. The result was a beautiful, moody collection of twelve songs called ‘Camillia’.

According to the limited information available, the band performed live several times between 2005 and 2007, at which point it just kind of… stopped. There’s no blogs or articles to be found mentioning who else was in the band or why it ended. And considering the fact that the group doesn’t exist anymore, it’s only relevance to today’s scene would be as a source of inspiration. But a great one, since it’s way better than most of what’s out there.

Camillia is perfect for those lazy, late-Autumn Sunday afternoons. It conveys an almost somber tone, but not to the point of depressing. “House of Stones” shuffles forward innocently enough with cute glockenspiel accents, until an unexpected buzz-saw synth bass turns the mood dark in a hurry. “Will All the Pieces Ever Mend” serves as the only misstep in my opinion. It’s a fine song on its own, but it kind of interrupts the flow of the album as a whole. But hey, having a song placed incorrectly in a tracklist isn’t the worst thing a band could do.

The record is peppered with several instrumental tracks, the most interesting of which may be “Collapsing Star”. It finds the perfect blend of traditional instrumentation and electronics. To create one of the albums highlights, Fabrizio shares vocal duties with Box Five frontwoman Mary Bichner on “We’ll Survive”. Hearing the duo take subtle breathes between vocal phrases goes a long way to further humanize what is already a stunning example of genuine songwriting. This is a truly timeless album that deserves to be remembered even if The Writing Birds never come back to life.

Have a listen: myspace.com/thewritingbirds

About Joseph Rose

Joseph is a father, a music production teacher, and a front man. He consumes as much music as he does pizza. And that's a lot.