Produced by Robert Minden & Carla Hallett, Like Light Off Water introduces the voice of celebrated Canadian poet Daphne Marlatt. The album presents selections from Marlatt’s classic long poem Steveston, with music composed and performed by Minden & Hallett, an evocation in music and poetry .

A delicate soundscape of microtonal nuance and lyrical intimacy surround Marlatt’s poetic voicing, rhythm and imagery. Her words bring you to the river’s mouth and into a sensuous landscape of lives lived in canneries, fishing camps, on the sea and through time. Marlatt’s exquisite reading offers a unique entrance into her evocative portrayal of a complex and culturally diverse Steveston, once a thriving fishing community at the mouth of British Columbia’s Fraser river. This fascinating mix of music and spoken word offers a deeply felt experience that takes you gently in.

 “stunning! “ Sheryl Mackay, North By North West, CBC Radio

The Minden Duo and Daphne Marlatt shaped the album into a spoken word concert which toured to writers festivals and universities.

 “Like Light Off Water is a new kind of soundscape, the musical score of 3 psyches collaborating on what is certainly one of the great poems of the recent past.”  Craig Tapping, Department of English, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, Canada

“It was stirring. It was visceral. The way Daphne Marlatt’s paradoxically hushed and strong voice uttered each line; the eerie howling of Carla Hallett’s intonations; Robert Minden’s careful use of unconventional instruments; a waterphone, a saw, a child’s piano. The hydro-phonic soundscape. The watery illumination of the stage. All of these elements coexisted and flourished together.” Kathleen Gorman, graduate studies, Carlton University

“haunting depictions of mysterious and erotic undercurrents … Pure poetry, pure sound, shifting the listener’s consciousness to the depths of pure feeling.”

Dianne Wells, The WholeNote Magazine, April 2009