epic45 - Spring

A Closer Listen

epic45 had already released Against the Pull of Autumn, Steps to Further Winter, and Through Broken Summer/Summer Broken Summer, but there was a gap in their seasonal discography … until now.  Spring was initially conceived between Drakelow and May Your Heart Be the Map, but along the way was dropped, revived, tinkered with, added to and finally released as a surprisingly cohesive set, redolent of the season.  The only downside is that it’s not spring anywhere right now, but we have it on good authority that the season will come along again: in fact, for the Southern Hemisphere, spring is right around the corner.

But because it is spring, one needs to find the right time and place to play a spring album in summer.  For this Northern Hemisphere reviewer, early morning is the most fitting time.  I’ve road tested the set on an early morning drive and spun it while making French toast the next morning, throwing scraps to blue jays and squirrels.  In these situations, the album fits.  Spring is described as a woodland album, the label is Wayside & Woodland Records, and I live at the intersection of woodland and inlet.

The softly-abraded “Opening” uses sparing notes over a gentle ambient hum, like a friendly alarm clock or a partner’s morning whisper, doubling over itself, like children awakening.  Over the next half hour, no track will jump above the others, but all will find their place, unfolding on pace with the earth.  The guitar notes are warm and welcoming, and in the lush “Showers and Sunlight” the birds swoop down to bear witness.  By now the whole neighborhood has awakened.  The heart of the album yields even more spring titles.  “Garden Reverie” produces hints of (quiet) post-rock.  Its electronic layers are like a bed of fresh mulch, the late guitar like the spring’s first seeds breaking the surface.  “Early Pollen Haze” begins with chime tones reminiscent of an English church bell.  Fittingly, a “haze” does visit the piece as a friendly crackle, playing with a whistle in the fields.

“Echoes of Last Year” and “Here’s to Uncertain Futures” tackle the subject of time.  One cannot help but think of the pandemic years, although the genesis of the album resists such easy classification.  The latter piece feels like a reemerging, though it may symbolize health from illness, spring from winter, afternoon from morning or any form of brightening.  When the album winds down, one is ready to face the day, whatever it entails.

Spring has the slightly bad fortune of appearing one season after the publication of our article The 25 Best Spring Albums of All Time.  While time reveals quality, and we haven’t had time to gain perspective, we suspect it will appear in the next incarnation of that list.  We’d also be overjoyed to see a Seasons box set collecting all four of epic45’s season-inspired releases coupled with a book of photography; given the past history of the label, this is not an implausible wish.  (Richard Allen)