Hi friends,
I’m really excited to share this record with you all, a week before this album is available to the rest of the world on the streaming platforms. The little clip above is called ‘Mushrooms (Los Angeles)’ and features a number of LA grown mushrooms in conversation with my modular synthesizer and Spencer Zahn on bass and synths.
For those new here, Mushroom Church is a community art project that brings together poets, scientists and ‘mushroom music’ for evenings of fungal inspiration around the globe. In churches. I’ve been trying to record these events as each one presents a different constellation of fungal, floral and human friends. This album contains almost an hour of my favorite moments - weird and wonderful and often surprising.
You’ll find performances and poems by Giuliana Furci of the Fungi Foundation, Mendel Skulski of the Future Ecologies podcast, poets Erin Robinsong and Fiona Glen, synth maestro Chris Gestrin, and musicians Robin Layne, Noah the Naturalist, James Keay, Rachel Kitchlew and more.
If you follow me on social media, you’ll know I’m not too keen on the current state of the music industry or music streaming. That’s part of the reason I started sharing here. I believe music (and nature!) are best enjoyed in community. So as I explore this medium I’m trying to make this a special place where every week I share something that isn’t available to the outside world. A secret garden - or a fairy ring - of inspiration and hope through nature and music.
This week’s share is this album! The most equitable place to host music is Bandcamp, so I’ve uploaded the album there one week before it goes to the rest of the world. Along with supporting In The Field, supporting music on Bandcamp is very, very meaningful. One purchase of the album on bandcamp is equivalent to about 30,000 streams (!!!). And Bandcamp now has a very nice streaming app that allows you to create playlists of all the music you buy.
If you love what you hear, we still have 5 spots left for the Vancouver immersive 4D sound listening session April 23rd at Lobe Studios. I’ll be handing out free tees! I have some b-stock from our last run of recycled tees that need good homes.
And for paid subscribers and research associates, below you’ll find a special bonus track that won’t be on any of the streaming platforms, ever. It’s also not preview-able on Bandcamp. It’s called New Energy and is a sparkling cloud of an improvisation between Chris Gestrin and myself at Vancouver Mushroom Church in March. Thank you again for your very kind support. And thank you for being in the field with me ✨
