Riderstorm, by Mute Forest

Riderstorm

by Mute Forest

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John McCaffrey Absolutely gorgeous folk ambience. Consistently beautiful and atmospheric. Puts me in mind of the best Gravenhurst tracks - dreamy, melancholic, beguiling. Stellar stuff.

radonegundo Beautiful music. Perfect for gamming ;) Favorite track: Morning Guitar.

plasticseahorse Dreamy and narcoleptic tunes that integrate the spirit of folk music into the ambient aesthetics. Put this record on while taking a scroll around the block at night and you might start visualising people who might never be seen again in real life emerging at the end of the street. Grief is the essence of this album, and it seeps through like tentacles. Favorite track: Crater Laugh.

Joe Borreson Stunningly somber folky songs and earthy rooted music that was created out of sadness, but shared for the world to move us into the light again. Very well crafted and wonderfully recorded and mixed album. My favorite Mute Forest album for sure. Favorite track: Morning Guitar.

TheSlowMusicMovement Lovely hazy electro-acoustic folk & post rock for day dreamers and astral drifters..

Lost Tribe Sound One of the most thoughtful, patient, and large-hearted songwriters in this modern day. Though Mute Forest is not widely known, the music is of the highest caliber. This might not be the high octane, face grabbing pop that seems to permeate everything with its stink these days. These are slow-burning, creeper-like anthems, that will solidify in your brain, given the right amount of time and attention.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
• Glass Mastered CD
• Japanese style gatefold heavy stock, reverse printed case
• Limited to 100 Editions
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SHIPPING COST UPDATE:
NON-US Customers interested in ordering multiple items, please email us directly at info(at)losttribesound(dot)com and ask for custom shipping quote. Should save a lot on shipping

Includes unlimited streaming of Riderstorm via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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edition of 100 1 remaining

Purchasable with gift card

$14 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
• Standard Weight Black Vinyl
• Heavyweight Reverse Print Jacket
• Limited Edition of 150
• Lyrics and Credits Insert
• High Quality Lacquer Cut by Gotta Groove
• Vinyl sleeved in interior black poly-lined sleeve
------------------------------------------------
SHIPPING COST UPDATE:
NON-US Customers interested in ordering multiple items, please email us directly at info(at)losttribesound(dot)com and ask for custom shipping quote. Should save a lot on shipping

Includes unlimited streaming of Riderstorm via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 4 days

edition of 150

Purchasable with gift card

$15 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Bundle Includes:

Normal Retail $40, plus saves on shipping
• Riderstorm 150gm Black Vinyl & Deforestation 180gm Black Vinyl
• Riderstorm in Heavyweight Reverse Print Jacket
• Deforestation in a matte gatefold tip-on case w/resealable sleeve
• Download code for Deforestation (emailed with 24 to 48 hrs of purchase)
• Lyrics and Credits Insert
• Both Lacquer Cut by Gotta Groove
• Both Vinyl sleeved in interior black poly-lined sleeves
------------------------------------------------
SHIPPING COST UPDATE:
NON-US Customers interested in ordering multiple items, please email us directly at info(at)losttribesound(dot)com and ask for custom shipping quote. Should save a lot on shipping

Includes unlimited streaming of Riderstorm via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 4 days

edition of 20

Purchasable with gift card

$25 USD or more

1.	Morning Guitar 03:34		buy track
2.	The Wave 03:24	lyrics	buy track
I see the wave that raged in you is still How long though ‘till endless spools of thread just spill You shouldn’t feel like you have to edit lines for me Truth is wave, a rave I just can’t hear Even when it’s slamming my ears You shouldn’t feel like you have to edit lines for me Truth is a wave, a ray I just can’t see But keep sending them out to me
3.	Dance the Spell Off 03:21		buy track
4.	Crater Laugh 04:05 video	lyrics	buy track
The days melting so fast Now you’re staring off bored as fuck Can we get back in sea Can we get back in the sea together
5.	Riderstorm 02:18		buy track
6.	Return 03:51		buy track
7.	Atoms Falling 04:20	lyrics	buy track
Even though there’s depth Feels like the space between us should not exist And I won’t let you build the fire alone And I wan’t you to feel the same Lately we always stumble the second it feels right Stunningly you keep blaming yourself But tell me why But I won’t let you build the fire alone And I want you to feel the same Suspended in the air is the wave just before it cascades But I won’t let you build the fire alone
8.	The Riven Sun 03:58		buy track
9.	Blue Chamber 02:52		buy track
10.	Helio Gap 04:19	lyrics	buy track
You say you remember every storm And every low glass before the next pour Sounds like the weight of every rock is tied to your legs and under the lake Under the lake There wasn’t a template to show us the way Out of the canyon where the winding trail broke off and drove us away You needed me then, but I showed at the end Out of the canyon where the winding trail broke off you needed me then You needed me then Oooh let the sun inside Oooh can’t you let this slide Thing ‘bout the past is it’s clear as the summer You needed me then but I showed at the end You needed me then but I showed at the end The thing ‘bout the past is that it’s clear as the summer and you needed me then You needed me then

about

There is a moment early on in 'Riderstorm' where a submarine-like pulse swells, then fades into the void. “Truth is a wave,” Kael Smith pronounces, “A rave I just can’t hear.” On Smith’s second album under the Mute Forest moniker, truth seems to slip in and out of his hands like a moth. Amongst the album's ten sonically rich and verdant songs produced by Mike Bridavsky (Magnolia Electric Co, Rivulets) these moments of clarity are bountiful; textural brush strokes strip away, the lens focuses in, and with a magnifying glass the listener peers directly into Smith’s vulnerability.

“This has been the most difficult record of my life to make... or at least to get started,” Smith explains.

Tragedy befell Smith (aka Mombi) in 2017 when his father died from alcohol abuse. Smith mentions, “There was a very long stretch after my dad died that I didn’t play music, my love for it was gone. I had an incredibly difficult time coming to terms with the idea my father would never hear another song of mine. And when you feel your best music is still to come, it’s hard to cope with that notion.”

It took a workmanlike approach to finally kickstart the material that would ultimately find its way onto 'Riderstorm.' Smith elaborates, “I climbed out of the muck by forcing myself to play open mics with only sketches of songs written. Sometimes I had so little to work with I would just go on stage and improvise with guitar loops and lyrics. Having that weekly deadline forced my hand and often times it was thrilling.”

That thrilling energy is captured exquisitely on 'Riderstorm.' The album is flush with guitars, bass clarinet, saxophone, organ, backing choirs, drums and more. All help flesh out what is by far Smith’s most mature release and a bold step in ear-percolating production. “Once I had about 10 songs mapped out I knew I needed the recordings to be special. Early on I decided I wanted to make a record of purity, capturing live takes with little-to-no computer processing of sounds. That’s when Mike (Russian Recording) was introduced to me,” describes Smith.

Smith spent 12 days recording in the bucolic, funky college town of Bloomington, IN. It was there at Bridavsky’s revered Russian Recording, he found the tools to fill his guitar tracings with flesh and blood. “We filled Russian’s beautiful live room with some of the finest session musicians in the area, all recorded though Mike’s massive Soviet-era vintage microphones and console. When I heard the tracks played back for the first time, I was stunned by their beauty and detail,” Smith recalls.

A bitter-sweet current seems to run throughout the veins of 'Riderstorm' and Smith agrees, “There are songs on here I wish my father could hear…and there are also songs and lyrics I would have never written had he not passed.” He divulges, “I’ve always felt music can be a teleport and there are songs on here that can teleport me to when he was alive. The hope is the album can teleport someone else out there somewhere beautiful too.”

'Riderstorm' comes in two physical formats. The CD arrives in a Japanese-style gatefold jacket featuring full color artwork by Berlin-based visual artist, Gundula Blumi. The album was also pressed to 150gm vinyl using the lacquer cut method by the high quality plant Gottagroove in Ohio, USA. The vinyl comes housed in a beautifully textured, 350g reverse print jacket, with an interior anti-static black poly-sleeve, and lyrics and credits insert. The CD edition is limited to 100, while the vinyl edition is limited to 150 editions.

credits

released April 3, 2020

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Originally released on Lost Tribe Sound. See Catalog: losttribesound.bandcamp.com
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BEST AMBIENT ALBUMS OF 2020 - LOW LIGHT MIXES

BEST OF 2020 - WHITELABRECS

BEST OF 2020 - SIDEWAYS THROUGH SOUND

2020 IN REVIEW: ELECTROACOUSTIC & EXPERIMENTAL FOLK - "The album was realized with careful attention to arrangements and recording methods that allow Smith’s lucid guitar lines and vulnerable vocals to resonate with crystal clarity" - STATIONARY TRAVELS

FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2020 - (Joel) THE STILLNESS AND THE DANCING

BEST AMBIENT OF 2020 - SOULGURU

ALBUM OF THE WEEK - "Narcoleptic ballads punctuated by acoustic arpeggios and atmospheric passages pervaded by muffled heat, Smith brushes a sequence of songs imbued with a bittersweet melancholy, with strongly meditative features, which however does not fail to present well-pronounced dynamic joints" - MUSIC WON'T SAVE YOU

"With each new listen – given time to breathe and ingrain itself – I have found new new things to love about Mute Forest‘s latest offering. It has proven to be a densely ambient, folk soundtrack for discovery and growth, teasing the varied and sometimes uncomfortable adventures of life; not only by looking outward into the world, but also venturing inward." - (Shaun Milligan) EVERYTHING IS NOISE

"If ever there was an album for our times then Mute Forest's new LP for Lost Tribe Sound might be it. The soporific ambient folk palette makes no attempt to disguise the underlying melancholy but its soothing tones will be a welcome respite for any anxious mind in resigned isolation." - THE SLOW MUSIC MOVEMENT

"It’s a beautiful sounding album, detailed, resonant, and precise. You can hear the timbre of the instruments, you can hear the room. You can hear space. But more importantly you can hear yourself within it." - (Bob Baker Fish) CYCLIC DEFROST

"A magnificent slowcore production." - (Benoit Richard) POSSIBLE MUSICS

"A slow and quiet succession of intimate confessions and placid visions in which the emotions from which everything is born reverberate" - (Peppe Trotta) TRISTE

"Big recommendation for anyone who fancies some slowcore ambient-folk with deftly deployed, nocturnal post rock atmospherics" - NEWS FROM NEPTUNE MUSIC

"Riderstorm is a permanent game with the elements, the liquid, the solar, the cloudy and the foggy. From the fall of an atom to the birth of a wave, from the shimmer of the sun in the current of a river to the roar of the ground, Riderstorm says nothing but says everything." - (Greg Bod) BENZINE

"Emotional teleportation." - (Łukasz Komla) NOWAMUZYKA
_____________________________________

All songs and lyrics written by Kael Smith
Mixed and mastered for vinyl and digital by Mike Bridavsky at Russian Recording
Recorded by Mike Bridavsky and Kirk Clausen
Bass clarinet and saxophone performed by Joe Donnelly
Drums on “The Wave” and “Helio Gap” performed by Zach West
Drums on “Dance the Spell”, “Crater Laugh”, “Riderstorm” and “The Riven Sun” by Ben Lumsdaine
Choir on “Morning Guitar” and “Crater Laugh” comprised of Madeline Robinson, Mike Adams, Kenzie Main, Jonathan Meador and Lewis Rogers
Additional textures on “Blue Chamber” by Matthew Herron
Cover photo by Gundula Blumi
Layout and design by Ryan Keane and Kelly O’Brien
© Kael Smith / Lost Tribe Sound, LLC
℗ Settled Scores LLC (ASCAP) 2020

Video footage for "Crater Laugh" was used and modified under CC by 3.0
Taken from Hanna Ueda's film "Kaidou"

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about

Mute Forest Colorado

Hailing from the Rocky Mountains, Kael Smith meticulously grafts lush and verdant acoustic capturings with filtered electronic elements. With releases under Khale, Mombi and now Mute Forest, Smith's quest for ear percolating textures hit a new high with 2018's dusty and distorted folk ballad "Pray for Hail". His second full length album 'Riderstorm' drops April 3rd, 2020 via Lost Tribe Sound. ... more

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