Northern Static by Lars Lentz

Tracks 1-13 are available on all streaming platforms. Tracks 14 and 15 are exclusive to Bandcamp.

"Northern Static" is an ambient electronic album inspired by winter in Michigan. Field recordings, pianos, and electronic synthesizers are layered together to create a complex yet minimal landscape of musical tracks evocative of the sparse and barren landscape of a Michigan winter.

"Mountainside" is a hopeful rendering of a recurring piano theme inspired by the orchestral works of Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924), a French composer, organist, pianist, and teacher. It is meant to give the feeling of both being out in the harsh natural landscape on the side of a mountain gazing out over the wide open sky, or the feeling of a turntable playing a well-worn but familiar piece while reflecting on the day in the warmth of a mountainside lodge.

"Onset" takes a darker approach to give that feeling of coldness at night in winter when there is both danger of freezing temperatures and the unknown things in the darkness of a harsh winter night. Some voices are delicately layered within this one, although granularly, and careful listening may reveal hints of speech wholly created by the mind of the listener.

"Cicuma Noctis" translates from Latin as "owls at night." The sounds in this track came from my listening and recording of Great Horned Owls talking to each other for hours at 2AM on a still winter night. The moon was full and snow blanketed the landscape that night. I stood by our hot tub and recorded the sounds of them outside the window. You can hear the occasional dripping water of that hot tub as well as my movements and breathing in this recording that I augmented with modular synths.

"Frozen Ascent" has a pulsing beat and repetitive tone that implies a feeling of "trudging onward toward a goal." Midway there is the sound of someone talking in muffled tones followed by voice hits in the percussion as a kind of signal to keep moving onward. The ending fades as the cafe approaches and a feeling of warmth at the end of the journey.

"Snowfield Static" is that sound of nothingness when looking out over a field covered in snow. It is almost static-like but not entirely white noise; it is a sound all its own. It conjures sounds of voices from within the mind as it seeks something familiar in the empty white and swirling snow.

"Warmed By The Sun" is a break in the harshness of winter, if only for an hour or minutes, with sunlight warming and thawing. Birds chirp and revel in the brief respite from winter.

"Moments Dissolve" speaks to the feeling of time passing so slowly in winter as it feels as if the winter will never end.

"Frost Flowers" are those patterns of frozen moisture that appear on any flat surface in winter as the temperatures drop well below freezing and into that dry-cold level of piercing cold. These patterns appear as almost flower-like in their fractal intricacy. Beautiful yet cold, they disappear when sunlight hits them and causes them to slowly melt away.

"Melt Process" gives the feeling of spring melting of the snow and ice that covers almost everything. It is a slow process with dripping water from ice formed on banks of culverts, rivers, and trees. I was inspired by seeing the melting of the ice in the waterway that runs along the road in front of my house as I walked out to get the mail.

"Thaw Sequence" continues the theme of spring melting of ice and snow as the frost and ice slowly come out of the ground, pushing it apart in the process. The ground is fractally cracked in the spring after the frost has left it and is ready to accept the spring rains.

"Casting Fate To The Wind" was a leftover track from a previous album but it felt like it fit here with the icy feeling it evokes. The inspiration and vision of it come from staring out into the greyness of a barren winter landscape and knowing that there is nothing anyone can do about clearing the winter away, just hoping for spring to finally arrive.

"Silent Running" was inspired by the movie of the same name and the feeling of a cold and still, snowless night, when everything is frozen so solid. The dry air makes the stars above shine so much brighter with faint twinkles as the icy air passes—staring up and out into the black void and immense vastness of space from outside my back door.

"Tundral Pulse" is a testament to the life that continues to thrive within a tundra. A tundra is a type of biome where frigid temperatures and short growing seasons hinder tree growth. It is like that in Michigan because we have short growing seasons due to the long winters, although we have great trees. I see rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, deer, coyotes, eagles, crows, owls, skunks, opossums, mink, woodchucks, hawks, and so much other wildlife that run around my backyard daily during the long winters, and they give me hope and happiness.

A "full album mix" is provided exclusively on Bandcamp, where each track blends with the next, and you can have a continuous listening experience for the whole album.

"Mountainside version 1" is a wider and more spacious version of Mountainside. Subjectively, I like it a lot better than the album version.

Find me: https://sleek.bio/larslentz .

Email me: larslentz@hey.com

Thank you for stopping by.

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