Michael Cloud Duguay shares new single "Change Islands" featuring Andrew MacKelvie's Many Worlds
Michael Cloud Duguay by Jamie Kronick
Today, producer and composer Michael Cloud Duguay shares "Change Islands", the third and final single towards his Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go, his upcoming record documenting a 900 mile journey across remote regions of Newfoundland, to preserve the unique sounds of seven organs across the province.
Listen to "Change Islands" HERE
"Change Islands" employs the organs of both stop five of the expedition - St. Andrew's Anglican Church on Fogo Island - and stop seven - Our Lady of Mercy Heritage Church in Aguathuna. In the track, Michael fully embodies the producer role, with friend and collaborator Andrew MacKelvie composing the piece. Field recordings recorded and performed by Dave Grenon feature heavily throughout the album, such as wind through bell towers, creaking pews, and the inner mechanics of the organs, but never as effectively as here. Grenon recorded the sounds of baby birds in a nest from a distance, sounding almost akin to a modular synth, as well as splicing in the sounds of the Fogo Island Ferry, giving the piece giving the piece a uniquely liminal quality, where birdsong, ferry engines, organ pipes, and architecture collapse into a single evolving sound world.
Speaking on the track, Duguay said: "I am almost completely absent from this piece and it is also my favourite - this is one where all of my collaborators really shine. It’s another of Andrew’s pieces, and it was recorded in multiple churches on multiple instruments. Andrew performed the organ cells on fogo island and the piano at Our Lady of Mercy in Aguathuna. I added an organ drone there too - on the same glitchy organ heard on the opening track. Dave introduced the field recordings during the editing phase - sounds of the Fogo Island ferry and a nest of baby birds he mic’d from a distance. They come together to create such a mesmerizing and delirious soundscape - the bird’s chirping sound not unlike modular synthesis. I adore Jeff McMurrich’s mix on this one - this was the mix he set back that set a tone for the remainder of the album."
Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go chronicles seven different church organs in seven different historic churches scattered across remote regions of Newfoundland, recorded in just nine days in July 2024, following more than a year of research and planning. Travelling over 1,500 kilometres in Jake Nicoll's mobile, solar-powered recording studio - The Scamper, built into a converted 1970s RV - Duguay and his collaborators Andrew MacKelvie and Dave Grenon traced the eastern perimeter of the island, stopping on coastal islands Greenspond and Fogo before reaching the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula and ending on Newfoundland's west coast. Each church presented its own unusual organ history: some instruments had been recently updated with digital keyboards and amplification, while others hadn't been serviced in over a century; in one extreme case, the team had to dig an organ out from beneath a pile of rubble in a decommissioned church's upper gallery. Rather than a record of organ music, the album is closer to an abstract musical documentary - one that captures not just the instruments but the communities and stories surrounding them, with Duguay's informal interviews with wardens, ministers, and congregants woven directly into its sonic fabric.
Equal parts unconventional and alluring, Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go unfolds a quietly captivating meditation on community, memory, geography, history, and spirituality, embracing aspects pulled from sacred music, free improvisation, sound art, ambient music and acousmatic techniques. Steadfastly enigmatic and inquisitive in its orientation, it also remains grounded through the powerful relationships it documents.
Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go is released on 10th July
Pre-order HERE
Kingdom Come, Kingdom Go tracklisting
Pond 1
River of Ponds
Greenspond Tickle
Winterhouse (feat. Scions)
Little Seldom
Pond 2
Tilting (feat. Andrew MacKelvie's Many Worlds)
Change Islands (feat. Andrew MacKelvie's Many Worlds)
Damnable Island
Settlement (feat. Georges E. Sioui)
Pond 3
More about Michael Cloud Duguay
Musician, composer, and producer Michael Cloud Duguay first gained recognition as a vital force within the early 2000s Canadian DIY music community, contributing to dozens of critically acclaimed recording and performance projects as a producer, arranger, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist. Following his beloved solo debut Heavy On The Glory (2012), Duguay spent almost a decade grappling with mental illness, substance addiction, and homelessness, but his commitment to music prevailed, ushering in a new era of creativity. His newfound momentum brought on a thirst for exploration that has since led him to expand his practice well beyond his foundation, as evidenced by the present project and his involvement in projects such as Scions, Andrew MacKelvie's Many Worlds, Quinton Barnes' Black Noise, and Closed City.
Duguay's output frequently explores memory, nostalgia, and location, both metaphorical and in the more literal sense. His fascination with the particular qualities of different spaces and with different collaborative dynamics has led him to record and create music everywhere from the Yukon Territory's northernmost fly-in community to the lantern room of mainland Canada's easternmost lighthouse, and has prompted him to explore sustainable methods of recording. In 2024, he launched the new label Watch That Ends The Night with his frequent collaborator, award-winning Halifax-based musician Andrew MacKelvie (New Hermitage, Scions, Jerry Granelli). The imprint's aim is to foster a spirit of experimentalism and collaboration outside of the boundaries of style while steadfastly maintaining a community-minded business model, an ethos reflected in its eclectic catalogue.
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