Owen Pallett Announces Expanded Reissues of Early Catalogue

'Has a Good Home,' 'He Poos Clouds,' 'Spectrum, 14th Century' and 'Plays to Please' are getting remastered and reissued

Photo: Jeff Bierk

BY Megan LaPierrePublished Nov 30, 2022

The first two albums and EPs from Mississauga-born composer Owen Pallett's prolific catalogue will be reissued in expanded, remastered forms.

New editions of full-lengths Has a Good Home (2005) and 2006's inaugural Polaris-winning He Poos Clouds are available digitally now through Domino. They will be pressed on vinyl alongside EPs Spectrum, 14th Century and Plays to Please (2008) with rare tracks, B-sides, music from compilations and previously unreleased material on February 24. You can pre-order them here.

A frequent collaborator of many Canadian music scene staples (Arcade Fire, the Hidden Cameras), Pallett served as the violinist in local Toronto bands as they were coming up. The artist built a reputation based on virtuosic ensemble performances before launching Final Fantasy, the looped-violin solo project to which Has a Good Home is an introduction. For sophomore follow-up He Poos Clouds — based on the Dungeons & Dragons School of Magic — the project expanded to include a string quartet.

Pallett considers their 2008 EP, Spectrum, 14th Century, to be a prequel to their celebrated 2010 LP Heartland, taking place in the same fictional world.

"When I realized Heartland was going to be a 'fantasy' album, I imagined that the Spectrum EP would serve as a map of the countryside, as one would find in the first pages of a fantasy novel," they said in a press release. With Plays to Please, Pallett makes their first foray into a full orchestra production, paying tribute to Van Dyke Parks's arrangement style in the spirit of Nilsson Plays Newman, interpreting the works of Alex Lukashevsky.

The musician's most recent solo work remains 2020's Island. In 2021, their Will Butler co-created score to Spike Jonze's 2013 Her finally got a proper release.

Watch the Jesi the Elder-directed video for "The Butcher" — from Spectrum, 14th Century and recorded outdoors in rural Quebec with Beirut during their sessions for The Flying Club Cup — remastered with new vocals below.


This year, Pallett contributed string arrangements to Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin's PRE PLEASURE.

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