OUT TODAY
VIA GIFTSHOP RECORDS:
LEFT VESSEL’S DEBUT LP ONE (AND DRIFTLESS)
Rustic, rural, and beautiful indie folk - PopMatters
Calming and thoughtful...embodies the sound and spirit of nature throughout - The Source Weekly
Songs with layers of sound that force you to pay attention - Glide Magazine
Delicate folk tunes…an enhanced audio experience - Americana-UK
Bright, orchestral folk…a perfect refresher on these summer days - Mother Church Pew
Wonderful - We Love That Sound
An engaging sound that at once feels authentically human and raw, and also like a pure imitator of the sounds of nature - Two Story Melody
A record truly at one with its environment - Fair Shakes and Just Desserts
Photo: Elisa Terrazas Campbell
Today, Oregon-based sound artist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Nick Byron Campbell, who records and performs under the moniker Left Vessel, has released his debut LP One (and Driftless), mixed by Cory Hanson (of Los Angeles-based band Wand), via GiftShop Records.
“This album is an attempt to cut away layers, sonically and thematically, to get to a simple core, playing and singing about basic things that have become really important to me in recent years,” says Campbell of the record, which bears overarching themes of respect for nature and the interconnectedness of all things.
[Text Wrapping Break]Campbell, whose music has been featured in films like Marcel Sarmiento's Faceless and television shows like “This Is Us,” thought: "What if you could make music with a tree? Not cutting it down and turning it into an instrument, but actually with a living tree, in a way that was beautiful musically but allowed that tree to go on living its life once you were done performing with it?” During his residency as the Crystal Creek Citizen-Artist in Houston, Minnesota, Campbell had the chance to explore Minnesota's Driftless Area in search of willing wooden participants.
“The residency provided me with a period of time at a cabin in the woods where I could focus, write and work,” Campbell recalls. “But as part of the program, I also engaged with the local community during my time there, and that itself was really inspiring. The song ‘Society,’ in fact, came about during a tour through a nearby historical society - a older and very kind local man slowly walked me through this beautiful, and incredibly full, museum, and I gathered most of the sounds heard in that song (drums, pump organ, various other unique sounds) on my field recorder while we walked around, and then turned it all into a song,” he adds. “The people there were wonderful.”
The album features several tracks recorded with trees, complete with ambient sounds of the forest in the background—chirping birds, fluttering wings, and feet keeping time on crunchy, fallen leaves. Campbell used his own unique instrumental creation he dubbed "the arbow." The arbow (a play on the Spanish word “arbol,” for tree) is a live tree that is strung, bowed or plucked, and amplified—all in a way that doesn't damage the tree. The core idea is to find a way of making “non-extractive” music: music that doesn't hurt our world but works with it. This video illustrates Campbell’s process: https://vimeo.com/366830629/bff361fd5b
The tracks encompass ideas of love and loss, the intricacies of relationships in tracks like “Your Winter,” and even visions had on a shamanic journey, the inspiration for “This Year Be.”
WATCH: “THIS YEAR BE”
WATCH “YOUR WINTER”
One (and Driftless) works in two parts: the first half illustrates relationships with nature, reflecting on how we as humans are so essentially tied to nature, but behave as if we aren’t. The second half explores relationships with other people, similarly reflecting on how deeply tied we are to one another, a timely message in this era of environmental stress and social strife.
Left Vessel’s swirling brand of indie-folk, though experimental in its creation, is imminently accessible due in large part to Campbell’s adeptness with winding, catchy hooks. Taken as a whole, One (and Driftless) is a collection of songs about transformation: ecological, societal, personal, and romantic.
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