Longboat has always moved outside predictable paths. With The Merry Blacksmith’s Song Bucket, Igor Keller once again builds a strange, thoughtful universe where humor, experimentation, and emotion quietly collide.
Keller recently teased the album on Instagram with a caption that perfectly captures its spirit: “The Merry Blacksmith’s Song Bucket is a strange little world of its own: sci-fi, satire, and soul under one roof. Step inside it and listen now.” In the accompanying video, on-screen text adds another layer of wit: “I tried talking to the vocoder again. It talked back.”
That line is more than a joke. It points directly to one of the album’s most notable shifts. This project marks Igor Keller’s first use of a vocoder, adding a new texture to the Longboat sound. For an artist known for constant reinvention, even this step came with hesitation. At first, Keller found the process intimidating, but over time he learned it could introduce something fresh while still feeling familiar.
That balance between curiosity and restraint defines The Merry Blacksmith’s Song Bucket. The vocoder doesn’t dominate the album. Instead, it becomes another voice in Keller’s expanding toolkit.
Longboat exists as an ongoing musical experiment. Igor Keller, a Seattle-based musician, writes, performs, and records most of the material himself, while collaborating with live contributors who help shape the project’s evolving sound. Originally a jazz tenor saxophonist, Igor Keller moved from the Seattle jazz scene into film scoring before finding his creative home in experimental pop.
That humor is front and center in Longboat’s identity. Keller’s Instagram bio describes the project as “An ongoing musical project, ever-changing and ever-growing, currently our leader is a squirrel but we like all the band members to have a say.” It’s a reminder not to take the machinery too seriously.
Ultimately, The Merry Blacksmith’s Song Bucket feels both surprising and rewarding.
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