this time it begins
with a thin pale whisp of neon green
like oxidized copper
a meteor’s earthward fall

and a head full of forgotten symphonies
whose waking melodies slip silently away
to settle down as shivering traces
beneath the timberglades

it’s for everything that sits still in the cold
to lay weathered and broken
to be ground into the earth
like shattered urns

for it the mountains make their quiet offerings
a thawing brook
soft green leaves unfolding in the spring’s first sun
a violet dusk
an untouched lake
the silent air that holds up the moon

and it ends when I am long gone
when all the hymns have been sung
and the weary stones my feet once touched
have held all the light
that there will ever be

IV

Each of these projects has a little piece of my soul in it, but this one especially does. It took a long time to create and finalize, and the bulk of it was recorded while I’ve been living away from the mountains for the past few years. A lot of the sound is influenced by that distance and longing, as well as the longer composition time. I experimented with different elements, especially choral pieces, and continued the same approach as the azure sun suite where I targeted the continuous mix. Instead of being a single continuous piece, I broke into two. The second half of the album came first, and “timberglades” is a personal favorite and a highlight of the album. The core melody and drone were made with my classic warm saw pad, and I used brass samples in my granular resampling pipeline. The brass samples were a new type of material to work with, and the result has an incredible richness and timbre. I wanted to respond to it with some more experimental percussive elements, and “heralds” came out of that. For a while I envisioned it living in the middle of the album as the bridge between the two halves. However, “reanimation” and “resin” came next, and I fell in love with their sound and how they melded into each other. In the end I could never place “heralds” in the continuous composition, but the entire first half of the album essentially grew as a response to “timberglades”. Similar to “the azure sun suite”, the continuous mix is a very rich and engaging listen while the individual tracks are a little more open and meditative. There are some elements that are only exposed in the individual tracks when they can be heard on their own.

I’m also very pleased to release supporting visuals in the form of an infinite video loop created by Evan Dalen of Luminary Art and Design. I sent Evan the artwork variants I had generated and he used them to create an incredibly detailed loop zooming into the album cover. It’s very meditative to watch the layers unfold, and it’s a perfect companion to the album. I hope to be able to release more visual content like this in the future.

The process for this album was a very deep but enjoyable one, and I’d like to thank everyone who reached out with their support. It means the world to hear from each and every one of you from all over the globe. I’m happy to say that I’ve moved back to the mountains, and will be gathering some more material for future albums.

– JC (.foundation)

w&p by Jake Carter
art & design by Jake Carter
CD design & layout by Andrew J Klimek
video loop by Evan Dalen of Luminary Art & Design (https://luminaryartanddesign.carbonmade.com/)
additional video editing by John Carter