Biography
Originally established in 2001 as the live backing unit for Montreal DJ Freeworm, The National Parcs operate as both a hip-hop ensemble and a multimedia collective. Vincent Letellier (aka Freeworm), Chimwemwe Miller, and Ian Cameron comprise the trio, handling music and lyrics, music and lyrics, and direction, respectively. Their recordings draw primarily on environmental sounds such as wood-splitting and water dripping, a technique first explored on Freeworm’s 2000 release Vegetation = Fuel. The same three members oversaw 2003’s Solar Power, issued under the Freeworm name, yet Timbervision, appearing in 2007, marked the initial album credited directly to The National Parcs. Born in Quebec, Malawi, and British Columbia in that order, the musicians channel their varied backgrounds into a densely sampled style that incorporates hip-hop, folk, Afro-beat, and spiritual traditions. Conceived as an all-nature concept project, Timbervision arrived in 2007 in CD/DVD format; the accompanying disc supplies a music video for every track together with brief clips illustrating the capture of each sample. All audio and visual elements were assembled over two years of intermittent work in rural Quebec.
Albums