Toeing the line between acoustic folk and progressive bluegrass, Big Fan of the Bison began as a project among friends in Denton, Texas. Members Kyle Gordon (mandolin), Sara Beth Hooper (vocals), Ethan Stalbaum (guitar), Chris Petro (drums), Collins McLaughlin (fiddle), and Willie Wrinkle (bass) had all met while studying music at the University of North Texas, finding common ground in their love of collaboration and songwriting.
What began as a relaxed weekly gathering centered around playing traditional bluegrass tunes and covers slowly transformed into an outlet for original songs. Spurred on by de facto manager and friend Jimmy Haslip, an eclectic musical style began to take shape over the course of roughly two years. The band’s debut album, Songs From The Frontier, arrived in October 2023.
Upon its original release in 2023, Songs From The Frontier was made available in both standard stereo and Dolby Atmos formats. The Atmos mixes were created by Erich Gobel and Karma Auger at Studio 1LA in Venice, California, ensuring high-fidelity sound that captures the nuances of each performance. Auger and Gobel are perhaps best known in the immersive music community for their Dolby Atmos remixes of four classic Frank Zappa albums released between 1972 and 1974.
We’re proud to announce that Songs From The Frontier is now available as a hi-res immersive download in the IAA shop! IAA offers immersive digital downloads in Dolby TrueHD, the same hi-res format used for Blu-Ray discs with Atmos audio. While streaming services offer convenience and access to a vast library of music, they also severely compress the audio to save bandwidth. With lossless TrueHD, the inner detail and sonic clarity is much better preserved for home listeners.
Gobel and Auger remain among the few mixers to really take advantage of all the possibilities that object-based immersive audio offers. Though some individual sounds do appear largely isolated in specific speakers, other elements seem to float out into the room with pinpoint accuracy. On a 7.1.4 system, the Dolby Atmos mix of Songs From The Frontier is truly a breathtaking listening experience.
“Cold Hearted” kicks off the album with a clear spread of instruments all around. It starts with two acoustic guitars panned mostly to the side surround speakers, giving way to the rhythm section from upfront. The bass guitar is almost completely isolated in the center speaker, while Sara Beth Hooper’s vocals float between the fronts and front heights.
The acoustic intro to “Top of The World” extends from the side surrounds up into the height array, while Collins McLaughlin’s fiddle emerges from the back right corner of the room. During the chorus (‘just for tonight…’) harmonies emerge from above the listener to very cool effect. “Better Off” pushes Ethan Stalbaum’s acoustic guitar up towards the front right height speaker, nicely countered by Kyle Gordon’s mandolin from the side left channel.
“You Again” instead places the acoustic guitar up in the front right height, quickly joined by Hooper’s vocal from the center channel. The fiddle and mandolin again battle diagonally from opposite quadrants of the room, as vocal harmonies emerge from behind and above. During the chorus, the backing vocals in “Just Enough” interestingly appear split between the front left height and rear right surround channels.
While each track on the album offers a refreshing change of pace, it still feels like a unified whole. It straddles more than a few genres: Folk, Bluegrass, Americana, and even a hint of Country, with subtle nods to the members' rigorous classical and jazz training managing to peek through. At its core, Songs From The Frontier is a collection of emotional and deeply relatable tunes–expressed with an exceptional degree of nuance and taste that is wonderfully unique.
Purchase Songs From The Frontier in the IAA Shop!
