Back in August, Matthew Cardinal opened an email from his label, Arts & Crafts.

It was a request, and one with a certain amount of urgency. Would the Edmonton-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, photographer and film composer be fine with the hit Netflix show Stranger Things using one of the songs from his 2020 debut solo album, Asterisms ?

“I was kind of shocked,” Cardinal readily admits from his apartment in Old Strathcona. “It was a big surprise. I was like, ‘What?’ So, I called the label and they said that it was definitely real. I responded with ‘Oh yes, yes, please use my music.’”

Cardinal isn’t sure how his song was chosen. He doesn’t work with a sync music agent who would pitch his music, so it’s likely that his label, which also represents Cardinal’s band nêhiyawak, wa

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