Live at the Tractorgrease Cafe. Tickets are $10 and available during business hrs at 604 858 3814 or email: tractorgrease@gmail.com.

Vancouver’s Rob Malowany further expands the range and depth of Parkland on the brooding, achingly beautiful Monument.

Recorded to tape in a single day, with no prior rehearsal, Malowany’s rough song forms are spontaneously interpreted by a hand-picked ensemble featuring Fond of Tigers frontman Stephen Lyons (on drums here), guitarist Paul Rigby (Neko Case, Art Bergmann), bassist John Savella (aka Johnny Wildkat), and experimental guitarist Tom Wherrett. The result is a pure, raw, and emotionally connected push-and-pull between alt-country/indie-folk song sketches and expansive interpretation.

Malowany’s plaintive lyrics are expressive, relatable and cathartic, exploring loss and longing, home and dislocation, the unattainable and the left behind, all with a maturity that is more nuanced and positive than wearily resigned. Slow-burning, dark grooves disintegrate and reemerge with more fire, Malowany’s voice a raw cry to the heavens.

As melancholy as some moments on the record are, it moves towards—if not the market-ready definition of “joy”—most certainly a mature balance of the dark and the light.