Harrison Robinson
When Harrison (Harrison Robinson) began working on his third album in his modest Toronto sudio in 2019, the producer and composer felt a strong desire to his artistic roots. “I knew I wanted to just make what I thought was cool, regardless of it being cheesy,” he says of the piano-centred compositions that would become Birds, Bees, The Clouds & The Trees. “Chick Corea had a quote along the lines of ‘you have to find what sounds beautiful to you’ and that really stuck a chord with me.”

Like his previous two albums, Apricity (2018) and his 2016 debut, Checkpoint Titanium (which earned the attention of the prestigious Polaris Music Prize), Birds, Bees, The Clouds & The Trees sees a handful of guests stepping into the producer’s technicoloured world, including Kadhja Bonet, TOBi, Nanna.B, M.E.D. and Guilty Simpson (their first reunion since J Dilla’s The Shining in 2006) To help complement his artistic vision, the producer enlisted the help of illustrator Elijah Anderson, whose single artwork recalls classic Blue Note covers and classic Saturday morning cartoons like Schoolhouse Rock.

Taken as a whole, Birds, Bees, The Clouds & The Trees is an assured and joyful statement from a young artist evolving and finely honing his craft. Or as Robinson himself puts it, “It’s the music that I dreamed about making as a kid.”