A Closer Listen
Exactly one year ago today, Hurricane Helene hit an unsuspecting Asheville, North Carolina and a swath of surrounding areas, causing momentous flooding and devastation. To mark the one-year anniversary, Asheville imprint Ceremony of Seasons releases a massive 30-track, 3 hour, 20 minute compilation to raise funds for environmental law organization earthjustice.org, whose motto is “because the Earth needs a good lawyer.” So why not just a compilation for Asheville? The answer is simple: soon after the hurricane came the wildfires in L.A. (addressed by the Kenniffs’ amazing For L.A. series) and any number of climate disasters. In short, Tim Gormley (Ceremony of Seasons) and Chandra Shukla (Erototox Decodings) are seeing the bigger picture, attracting contributions from as far away as Australia’s Lawrence English; many will remember the wildfires that ravaged that nation only a couple years ago. Only this past week it was reported that the U.S. is not the only country whose government is scaling back on efforts to combat climate change, astoundingly claiming there is “no proof;” efforts such as Of Landfall and Wildfires are more important now than ever.
Normally at the autumn solstice we would expect a new seasonal pairing of wine and music from Ceremony of Seasons, but this compilation gives fans a way to catch up with almost all of the label’s roster; a third of the album is comprised of their contributions. Given its length, downloading the compilation is like getting five albums at once. We’ve placed the album in Drone as there’s slightly more drone than ambient, and more drone and ambient than electronic, experimental and field recordings; but all of these genres are present as well. With thirty tracks, there’s plenty to delve into, and everyone will have their own favorites; a selection of ours are listed below. But with a project such as this, it’s not the point; every artist is to be celebrated for their contributions to an incredible cause, while the quality across the board is extremely high.
Brett Naucke eases us gently into the set with a gorgeous slice of ambience that shimmers with an electronic sheen. “Eden Olympia” is like a vision of what may come to pass should everything go right, and people come to their senses. Jon O’Rourke follows with ceremonial chime and drone. One might say these pieces set the template for all that is to come. In “Refusorting,” Christopher Fleeger + Jonathan Snipes offer sounds that seem redolent of the title: digging through refuse to find treasure, or at least something to help a family to survive the week. Occasional alarms poke through the sonic field, underlining the danger of such work. Imaginary Softwoods uses ebullient electronics in “Gone to Seed,” a seeming contradiction of its title, but a welcome timbre. In one of the album’s most beautiful pieces, Farewell Phoenix sings, as if to deliver an underwater requiem, in “Mermaids.” Richard Skelton makes a surprise guest appearance on the thick and foreboding “Adventurine,” which fades to a tendril in its final moments.
The second third begins with avian sounds, as “Barcelona Birdsong” is a gorgeous twinning of birds of brass, presented by Future Museums, holding out hope for species preservation. Tony Rolando expresses the reaction of many with “Doesn’t Ever Quite Make Sense,” a drone malaise that thickens and deepens as it progresses. Meg Mulhearn amplifies the resonance of a broken world in “Mountains to Sea,” her expressive violin playing a mournful elegy. XOR, who earlier this year chronicled the Asheville disaster on Moss and Mud, continues the narrative on “I Don’t See Lights on the Mountain Anymore.” After building to a dense electric peak, the music stops, revealing only crickets and dogs. Underlining the diversity of the set, Thom Nguyen reveals a GY!BE-like dirge in “To Where We Were Never Lost,” drums pounding all the way.
Closing the compilation, Lawrence English‘s “Fireflies and Falling Light” is a reminder of all that is worth fighting for and worth preserving. This pristine field recording teems with life and vibrates with natural intensity. The track title flips the script on the album title, Of Landfall and Wildfires, as if to propose a different vision, one that started with “Eden Olympia,” proceeded through the fall of humanity, and ends with a return to the Garden. Referencing the Ceremony of Seasons series, there may not be enough wine in the world to drown our sorrows; but with hard work, persistence and hope, one day we may uncork a bottle in celebration of a world that has come to its senses and an ecology restored. (Richard Allen)
Fri Sep 26 00:01:43 GMT 2025