Every two months In A Cabin With is inviting one or more Dutch musicians to travel to a beautiful spot somewhere in the world to write, produce and record an album in collaboration with local musicians, in 10 to 14 days. This location could be a farmhouse in Sweden, a big wooden house just outside Chiang May Thailand, an apartment in New York or a church in Ottawa Canada.

An intriguing concept from a group called In A Cabin With. Can they pull it off? Yes!

In A Cabin With is the brainchild of Maarten Besseling, with the help of Jesse Beuker. And like the description from their website says – they lock up a band in isolation and see what kind of amazing music is created. Once a band has returned from their musical spirit journey Maarten mixes the recordings at his recording studio, The Green Motel, in the Netherlands.

These albums are then given away for free at the website (donations are graciously accepted). They actually ask you for your email address before providing the download link, but thus far I haven’t received a single email from them (granted, I entered B’s email address).

The project has recently released their 13th album with The Black Atlantic, a band from Holland celebrating this release as their first album. A good comparison for this group would be somewhere between Bon Iver and Sigur Rós. The flowing melodies and steady, floating music is a nice relaxing listen.

You can see from the photo to the right that this a group with a wide variety of musical instruments at their disposal. However, it is the haunting piano notes that seem to lead each song. Paired with an equally haunting vocal style, and you’ll feel like your being taken to a strange, spooky, and beautiful place.

This also seems to be the most popular of the In A Cabin With’s releases – so probably not something to pass up. And interestingly enough, both the band’s website and the Cabin site encourage and cite torrent sites for much of this albums distribution success. I guess if you’re giving your album away, why not?

The Black Atlantic – Old, Dim Light

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Black Atlantic – Walked-On Wood

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The second latest release from the In A Cabin With series is from the Amsterdam group We’ll Make It Right. They were put up in a tiny hotel room at The Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam. I think this band was created in the spirit of the project, but I would imagine they stay together post facto.

Their music is cleverly quirky with many layers of everything from orchestra instruments to the simple grand piano. The lead is shared between male and female vocals that compliment each other warmly. There is something lazy in the way the singers sing that makes everything seem more honest.

I also downloaded a handful of the other releases from In A Cabin With and many of them are worth a listen. You could easily waste an afternoon listening to each of these albums. But in case you don’t have the time, the above two bands are probably the best.

We’ll Make It Right – It Ain’t All Good

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

We’ll Make It Right – We’ll Make It Bright

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.