Field Works – Cedars [LP]

Vinyl LP pressing. 2021 release. The mystifying 9th album in the Field Works series, Cedars combines cosmic Americana with Western ambient and Middle Eastern influences. Delicate layers of pedal steel, banjo, oud, and hurdy-gurdy ?oat atop looping guitar drones to create a soothing, atmospheric chamber where folk and electronic music coalesce. Set to Arabic and English poetry, the song cycle examines some of Earth’s most iconic and ancient forests, revealing our complicated relationship with the natural world. For this special dual-language release, Field Works producer Stuart Hyatt has assembled a supergroup of musicians, poets, and artists. The album is narrated by Youmna Saba and H.C. McEntire. Instrumentalists include Marisa Anderson, Fadi Tabbal, Dena El Saffar, Danny Paul Grody, Bob Hoffnar, Toms Lozano, Nathan Bowles, Alex Roldan, Youmna Saba, and Stuart Hyatt. Renowned illustrator Mara Medem brings poems by Todd Fleming Davis and Youmna Saba to life in the accompanying full-color Risograph comic book; and longtime Field Works collaborators PRINTtEXT design the packaging.

Tracklist:

1. La’ali’
2. Thak-Al-Yawm
3. Badron Wa Qina?
4. ‘Araha
5. In?Ikas
6. ‘Aylul
7. Ar-Ra?Il
8. ?Alaqah ‘Azaliyyah
9. 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

UPC: 656605335117
Label: TEMPORARY RESIDENCE
Release Date: 3.5.21
Format: Vinyl