"As the Beaches and Canyons school of music assembly gradually blossoms onto an outright
genre, enough imitators have made themselves known that the cream has begun to rise to the top.
Known entities like Gang Gang Dance and Exceptor have inked their marks, but it´s only just now
that acts like Growing and Cloudland Canyon are really making an impact."
- Dusted Magazine -
"I´ve been listening to this record a lot, when the 10,000 other records i have are all boring me to
bits or insulting my intelligence or trying to sell me something no one wants, this record acts like
a firehose blast, blowing the rabble right off my path."
- Outsideleft -
"This record totally knocked us for a loop. And the thing is, I´m not entirely sure we can explain why.
This is one of those rare records that is darn near indescribable. It´s almost like some super computer
a million years in the future began picking up these strange transmissions from the old Earth,
German Oak, Faust, Amon Düül, but after travelling billions of miles and being interpreted by some
alien machinery, those songs and sound came out sounding, well, completely nuts. Georgeously and
incredibly fucked. And thus completely recommended!"
- Aquarius Records -
"...a lullaby, as sweet and evocative as your mother´s voice. This is wonderful, tantalizing music,
with melodies buried under fuzz and all the interesting stuff happening at the periphery. You may
never fully get a grip on it - it´s always slipping away and shape-shifting into something entirely
different from what you expected. Still, even the attempt to understand something as weirdly
compelling as Requiems Der Natur is mind-expanding."
- Pop Matters -
"Requiems Der Natur is the debut album from Cloudland Canyon and it´s a religious experience
in and of itself. Capable of forming amazing harmonic convergences, Cloudland Canyon has
massive, infinite ambitions. This is not merely a record; it is an exhibition of art."
- Lost At Sea Magazine -
"The group´s debut album Requiems Der Natur 2002-2004 is a starry-eyed psych rock opus with
mystical aspirations and a Ph.D in minimalist-drone composition. It´s as if they have read the
world´s great religious tomes and studied drones under mastery minimalist composers such as
Steve Reich and Terry Riley."
- Alternative Press -
"Here was a duo who conjured the soul-inflating drones of the great minimalist composers
(Steve Reich, Terry Riley, David Behrman, Phillip Glass et al.) and ´70s Kraut-rock psychonauts
like Ash Ra Temple and Embryo. Unusual to say the least. Bolstered into a deep mystical vein
of sonic poetry and rare melodic beauty they make most freak folkies sound like fey daisy-pickers.
One of this years finest brain-massagers."
- Seattle´s The Stranger -
"As often happens when a crooked musical bone rips through the skin of mainstream, the unlikely
rise of Animal Collective has produced an unfortunate side effect: now any band with a whooping
jungle-jam vibe gets branded as one of the Collective´s descendants. That tag will surely be
inflicted on Cloudland Canyon, but pay the band´s accusers no heed. Not only does this duo´s
mix of chanted vocals, tribal drums and noisy sheen transcend mimicry, there are so many other
audible influences on Requiems Der Natur - Fennesz, This Heat, Flaming Lips, even the Beatles-
that the resulting hybrid becomes the unique product of its creator´s omnivorous minds...a kind of
Sgt. Pepper´s for people who like to dig through haystacks of sound to find needles of song. That kind
of primal pop proves to be Cloudland Canyon´s sneakiest trick."
- Baltimore City Papers -
"Analogs and synthesizers bubbling with ´70s electronics mesh with savvy krautrock orchestrations
and then the raw edges of free jazz. Elements of no wave and freak folks splash, foam and crackle
through the album´s tracks, making a sound evocative of what might happen if Syd Barrett scrambled
from his seedy nest to jam with the Black Dice"
- The San Francisco Bay Guardian -
"This is the shit, man. I could listen to this all night long."
- Allen Bishop (Sun City Girls) -
"Two ways to tell that a show is amazing: nobody in the venue´s talking much and nobody´s
ordering drinks. Such was the case last night at the Sunset Tavern for the Lichens, Cloudland Canyon
and Sir Richard Bishop gig. These performers riveted the attendees with sets that bordered on the
revelatory."
- Seattle´s The Stranger -