Reuben And The Dark

Centered on the introspective songwriting of frontman Reuben Bullock, the Calgary-based Canadian indie folk outfit Reuben and the Dark coalesced around his early solo work from the start of the 2010s. The project’s first collective recording arrived with the 2014 release Funeral Sky, whose expansive folk-rock textures grew even broader on the 2019 album Un|Love.

Bullock issued his debut solo set, Pulling Up Arrows, in 2010 and was already sharing stages with his brother Distance Bullock on percussion and cello when he recruited multi-instrumentalist Shea Alain and bassist Scott Munro to flesh out his brooding material for live performance; the resulting unit adopted the name Reuben and the Dark. Their first joint effort, 2012’s Man Made Lakes—still presented as Bullock’s second solo album—incorporated richer vocal harmonies and supported an extensive tour across Western Canada. After Bullock played several solo dates in Mexico, London’s Mairead Nash, founder of Luv Luv Luv Records and associated with Florence + the Machine and Blood Orange, took notice; subsequent sessions in England with Florence + the Machine drummer Christopher Hayden shaped the songs that became Funeral Sky, issued in May 2014 on the Arts & Crafts label. During a stretch of intensive road work the band released the stand-alone single “Heart in Two,” which reached number one on CBC Radio 2’s Top 20 chart in February 2016. Arms of a Dream followed in spring 2018, and a year later the group delivered the spacious Un|Love, co-produced with Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene and Marcus Paquin of the National.