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Welkin is currently working on a 4th full length record & ceremoniously playing The Dark Night Sky artistic experience.
Welkin's 3rd record, This Is Your Blood All Over Me, the epic double-album steeped in the wilderness plus the much anticipated sophomore record Strangers & Exiles--hailed as an art rock triumph by critics-- as well as the critically acclaimed debut record No Ordinary Elephant are available for free streaming & purchase on the music page of this site.PRESS FOR Welkin: "The relative solitude and palpable wildness of Birch’s home in the Cascades have left an indelible imprint on his songwriting. That the rugged landscape has made its presence felt in his lyrics is evident from song titles like Yellow Moon and Crystal Sky and Seasons in the Wilds. Moreover, the very sound of Welkin seems like an outgrowth of its rustic environs. Witness The Love of Most Has Grown Cold, a cosmic-country rock epic that flows with the gentle clarity of a mountain stream before black clouds of searing electric guitar send it rushing over the falls."
"...welkin takes its art seriously. Every song here shows incredible depth...Birch has the same high, keening voice that's made Thom Yorke and Neil Young two of rock 'n' roll's most unlikely superstars, and the songs he writes seem made for gazing at distant universes from splintered country porches."
The Garage's Top 10 Local Records in 2011... "Yeah, it clocks in at over 12 minutes [Cliffs part two] and we have a sneaking suspicion it’s a love song to Jesus, but as it moves through setting-the- woods-on-fire country rock and blistering, ragged-glory guitar solos, you just might get religion yourself."
"Geoff Birch is either presumptuously foolish or obstinately ambitious to release a double CD of 12 generally very long songs. Taking the latter view, This Is Your Blood All Over Me should be applauded for its "what the hell' recklessness, even if Welkin (Birch and a flexible, small band) could use an edit that would have resulted in a tighter and shorter record. As it is, the album is a combination of singer-writer fare with a little Neil Young And Crazy Horse dirt and clatter. Generous soloing while waiting for the lyrical/musical payoff. The songs are literate and poetic, generally, with Birch coming across as a romantic with an earnest viewpoint."
"This Is Your Blood All Over Me is nothing short of epic. Birch’s lyrics ponder the natural and spiritual worlds and his place in each, but it’s the music that’s the real revelation here. The best word for numbers such as Raven Falls and Seasons in the Wilds might be expansive. Produced in collaboration with Jonathan Anderson (who is a past master at this sort of thing), these songs unwind slowly, melding down-in-the-canyon country-rock with ethereal space-prog in a way that brings to mind Neil Young fronting Pink Floyd. That’s a mighty nice thing to bring to mind, too." "Not a sound has been overlooked, and nothing is misplaced on Strangers & Exiles. The complexity of the arrangements is oft times awe-inspiring and mind-boggling, and just grows more so with each listen. Full of surreal imagery, the folding repetition of lyrics adds to the pulsing, melting, and swirling beauty of the beast, for Strangers & Exiles is a living and breathing thing."
"While in Buffalo Springfield and during the first months of his solo career, Neil Young pursued an expansive, complex strain of symphonic rock that sounded like folk songs set adrift in outer space. Welkin, the six-year-old vehicle for Vancouver's Geoff Birch, sounds like what might have happened if Young had continued on that path."
"Welkin deliver the kind of imaginative, deep and textured rock that is the perfect soundtrack for dreams of storming the castle, surfing that endless summer wave or simply sitting stoned alone in your backyard. Welkin genuinely seem to have their finger on the sedated pulse of the stoner rock culture."
"Apparently, band mastermind Geoff Birch lives in a cabin in the Cascade Mountains for inspiration. Well, it worked. I'd say the LSD worked too, as he and the boys get down to business the way the Floyd used to. Good songs, good singin', good record."
"Equal parts smouldering, country-noir and prog-leaning soft rock, the 10 tracks on the groups independent debut have an expansive shimmering beauty, making them perfect for midnight stargazing, backwoods campfires, and clamping on the headphones in the wee hours."
"Pink Floyd and Radiohead would be proud. With that said, Geoff Birch keeps it real for Welkin as a band truly ready to tour Canada to sold out shows once realized. Small is anything but, its the mood of the album, whereas Horses Heaving Under These Silver Stars is pure gold and will be what pokes Geoff Birch and the boys in the gut and lead them to continued artistic brilliance."
"Unusual for a Vancouver made record. Welkin, a trio led by Geoff Birch, is more concerned with mood so the punchline takes its time in coming. The songs on Welkin's CD tend to be lengthy, sometimes recalling progressive rock but sometimes bringing to mind the atmospheric tension (and beauty) of the lauded but little known Blue Nile."
"A massive, ambient art rock record full of gorgeous, often exhausting epics. It's a mostly successful attempt at an organic Pink Floydian, Radioheadian album - a 70-plus minute journey inside of your mind, meant to take you far, far away from where you sit and into the furthest reaches of that wide open space."
"B.C.'s Welkin is the ultimate chill-out band, and their latest CD Strangers & Exiles can best be described as soft rock with a backbone. Mellow but not bland, the tempo is slow and steady and the songs frequently push the eight minute mark. The disc's apex is the fully-realized prog masterpiece Howling Wind, a success not in the sense of a lot of busy instrumental noodling, but in the sense of fully-formed musical ideas that are left to amble slowly towards a conclusion rather than be crammed into the 2:30 pop song formula. Geoff Birch's expressive voice injects some warmth into the otherwise austere musical landscape, which conjures up memories of campfires and wilderness at night. Perfect for backyard stargazers, or city folks who wish they were."
"No Ordinary Elephant sounds like an album in the past sense of the term--a group of songs with an identity that sounds like they were recorded with purpose and conviction. This stargazing sound is epic and invokes the spirit of progressive rock without the latter's tendency to virtuosi pomposity. Songs Montana and Fading fully capture an elusive imagery in the mind's eye that suggests long journeys that coast into crescendos much like the band's live show. The seamlessness is interrupted by the brooding Photograph, foreboding and suggestive of impending and unknown events. Vocalist Birch has created haunting and memorable songs and sounds that merge vision and style into honestly accessible art."
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