Deforestation by Mute Forest

In a seemingly ceaseless acreage near his childhood home in the Rockies of Colorado, Kael Smith (Mombi, Khale) takes a deep breath and listens critically to the forest. It is not the same sound he remembers as a youth, when he’d disappear for hours deep into these woods. No, the sound he hears today is unfamiliar and vapid. Muted, really.

Since Smith’s departure to the city of Denver; the Mountain Pine Beetle has moved into these woodlands and decimated the trees; devouring their insides and leaving empty husks in its wake. It is among these thinned out swaths a word keeps repeating back to him, over and over, incessantly… 'Deforestation.'

Over the last decade, Smith has approached songwriting with a similar respect he had for the wilderness as a young boy. Whether it was the cyclical dark melodies of his band Mombi’s 2011 LP 'The Wounded Beat' or the careful layering of his debut EP Infinity Pools, released this year under the Mute Forest moniker, Smith has taken extreme care to the subtleties of his recordings. Along with several respected outlets, Stereogum in particular deemed 'Infinity Pools EP' as having “the effect of watching a gray, drizzly dawn over a dystopian future-metropolis.” While Fractured Air minced no words saying, “It conjures up the timeless sounds of Helios, Benoît Pioulard and a host of other electro-acoustic milestones”. And while it’s easy (and probably flattering) to be compared to other stalwarts operating within similar genres, with Deforestation Smith takes a confident step towards his own signature sound; out of the driving rain and into the filtered light through stricken trees.

Painstakingly written, recorded and mixed at his home studio in Denver, 'Deforestation' sprawls across nine sonorous and meticulously wrought tracks containing elements of minimal electronic, ambient and folk. Large cavernous beats, micro ambient deconstruction and nylon guitar all swirl into a coherent palate left for Smith’s poignant, intimate words. Zoom in further and one quickly hears Smith’s nuance at work. The frail techno skeleton of the track “Automatism” contains electrical pops and crackles captured from a spontaneous lightening storm through an amp. Following in order, the hall-of-mirrors piece “Back of Cave” conjures up the endless reflections of a racquetball court with it’s multi-taped percussion and Smith’s chilling vocal refrain, “Don’t be a labyrinth anymore.”

Mastered specifically for vinyl by Taylor Deupree (12k), and with the additional step taken to create lacquers and metal stampers by SAE Mastering, 'Deforestation' sees a gatefold 180-gram release from Lost Tribe Sound that, like the material, takes no shortcuts. Both the album’s acetate and test pressing were scrutinized for anomalies on world-class vinyl setups at Arizona’s esteemed high-end audio dealer and vacuum tube specialists, Arizona Hi-Fi. Concluding the deluxe package and connecting intimately with the material within are stark, disintegrating images courtesy of renowned minimalist photographer Christy Romanick (Rivulets, Chihei Hatakeyam).

Hailing from the Rocky Mountains, Kael Smith meticulously crafts songs centered around lush and verdant guitars, drums and saxophone with occasional filtered electronics. With releases under Khale, Mombi and now Mute Forest, Smith's quest for ear-percolating textures hit a new high with 2020's Riderstorm, released by Lost Tribe Sound.

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