Drifting Between Seasons. \u00a0<\/em>The timing is perfect; while we have already launched the month of March and its meteorological spring, astronomical spring is still three weeks away; the album is released this Friday. \u00a0During this liminal period, one may claim residency in either season, or both; one day a blizzard may arrive, another will bring t-shirt weather. \u00a0Even so, one knows that one season, inevitably, will end.<\/p>\nThe album is built upon fragments of tape that had been discarded during the production of prior works. \u00a0These snippets act like seeds, while the additional instrumentation and field recordings are like fresh rainwater and good soil. \u00a0The music itself becomes a metaphor for new life, springing forth from the old. Just as a seed lies dormant, these strips of sound lay below the sonic earth, germinating in secret, waiting for their time to sprout.<\/p>\n
The album begins with the rustle of the forest: snowmelt, early birds, quiet wind. \u00a0Twinkling bells imitate the sun sparkling through the pines. \u00a0Then the twins of precipitation begin to dance: early rain, late snow. \u00a0The droplets turn to flakes and back again. \u00a0The snow returns to the sky and then returns to the earth: an unending cycle in which the form of matter morphs while the molecules remain the same. \u00a0In like matter, one might reflect on the ways in which people may change and revert and change again: same bodies, different mindsets.<\/p>\n
And yet, through all the cycles, there is still forward motion, as expressed in the pairing of \u201cFading Footsteps in White\u201d and \u201cThreads of Warmth.\u201d \u00a0The past and the future are engaged in a tug of war, but only one can win. \u00a0Valotihkuu\u2019s timbre is wistful and nostalgic; the bells of \u201cFading Footsteps\u201d retreat as slowly as white outlines beneath a warming sun, giving way to apricity. \u00a0Windows open wide to the warming sun. \u00a0The birdsong increases in \u201cWarmth;\u201d the thicket of sound grows dense, while the distant whoosh of traffic can be heard.<\/p>\n
By \u201cWinter\u2019s Last Whisper,\u201d it is time to say goodbye to one season and hello to another, making Kenard Pak\u2019s children\u2019s book Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring\u00a0<\/em>the perfect accompaniment. \u00a0But the album is about more than seasons; it is about how we rescue valuable parts of ourselves we had once discarded, how we reinvent ourselves, and how we create something shiny, sparkling and new, with an equal or greater value of its own. \u00a0(Richard Allen)<\/strong><\/p>\n
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<\/a>It\u2019s been too long since we\u2019ve heard from\u00a0Valotihkuu<\/strong>, who makes his welcome return with Drifting Between Seasons. \u00a0<\/em>The timing is perfect; while we have already launched the month of March and its meteorological spring, astronomical spring is still three weeks away; the album is released this Friday. \u00a0During this liminal period, one may claim residency in either season, or both; one day a blizzard may arrive, another will bring t-shirt weather. \u00a0Even so, one knows that one season, inevitably, will end.<\/p>\n