(2021) Field Works - Cedars


Review:
The ninth album from Stuart Hyatt’s collaborative Field Works project is a poetic song cycle about humanity’s relationship with nature, and forests in particular. Unlike most of the project’s releases, this one doesn’t appear to incorporate field recordings of any sort — no crackling autumn leaves or chirping birds are audible at any point. The instrumentation is largely acoustic, constructing ambient Americana soundscapes filled with gently plucked guitar, banjo, and oud melodies as well as rich strings and hurdy-gurdy drones. Throughout the first half of the album, Lebanese composer and musicologist Youmna Saba fluidly switches between speaking and singing lyrics in Arabic. Her words generally describe seeking refuge in the ancient forests and the nigh ky, escaping the chaos and injustice of society. Some of the pieces tremble with suspense and uncertainty, but it all feels like it’s part of a healing process, and moments like “’Aylūl” seem like they’re on the verge of arriving at a sort of breakthrough. The second half of the album is a different story, but with similar themes. Indie country singer H.C. McEntire narrates a series of poems written by Todd Fleming Davis, and they relate to natural and human history, describing where we come from and how we use the earth’s resources. The rollicking, banjo-inflected “The sharp smell of cedar” is as crisp and earthy as its title sounds. “Before we’re born” starts out clear and vibrant, then gradually tones down and becomes blurrier after the lyrics mention the human body returning to the earth after passing. Some of the pieces starkly reference humanity’s destruction of forests and stripping the earth of its minerals in order to serve society’s needs, but the parts that mention aging and death respectfully regard them as inevitable stages of the cycle of life. As such, the overall tone of the pieces is warm, optimistic, and forgiving.





Tracklist:
01 - La’āli’
02 - Thāk-al-yawm
03 - Badron wa Qina‛
04 - ’Arāha
05 - In‛ikās
06 - '’Aylūl
07 - Ar-raḥīl
08 - Ḥalaqah ’Azaliyyah
09 - The sharp smell of cedar
10 - Before we're born
11 - The scars of recent history
12 - In the gloaming
13 - Drowning in a sky of cotton
14 - Each year
15 - In the floodplain
16 - The pasture


Media Report:
Genre: alternative folk, ambient, world
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits