Collapsed Clouds

How many columns of clouds
Had risen and crumbled, I wonder

Among other things, these two lines of Japanese poetry by Sora (an Edo period Japanese poet) evoke the natural balance between order and chaos. They inspired and inform the core ideas of this album, a musical meditation on the tipping point of our current climate catastrophe, where naturally occurring weather systems collapse into something terrible and beautiful. It also reflects the fact that as a species we have the ability to see beauty in even the bleakest of circumstances.

With this album we sought to mirror the tension between chaos and order, working with naturally occurring and accidental musical and textural events in concert with formally composed elements. Ice and vapour: rising and falling, coalescing and dissipating columns of sonic clouds that reflect the melting of translucent marble-blue ice sheets, huge storms forming over darkening oceans, and the gradual fading of mist. Complex and fearful, pure and meditative, sounds that ebb and flow, solid then evaporating.

The impressionistic piano compositions of Ross Harris performed by Stephen Clothier, the textural distortions of Sam Leamy's guitar, Neil Johnstone's synthesised soundscapes, Steve Burridge's various samples and recordings, and Steve Garden's final manipulations and treatments combine to produce an experimental and often emotive conversation about the environmental challenges ahead of us.

Featuring:
Stephen Clothier (piano)
Ross Harris (piano score)
Neil Johnstone (synthesized soundscapes)
Sam Leamy (guitar, effects)
Steve Burridge (recordings and samples)
Steve Garden (manipulations and treatments)