Season Cycle: Autumn

Autumn is a season of contrasts. The trees’ leaves put on a brilliant show of red, orange, and yellow, a fleeting beauty that quickly transitions to drab grays. The cool, crisp air provides a reprieve from summer’s heat, but the comfort fades as the chill of winter sets in. The sounds, sights, and smells of autumn offer a last gasp of beauty before shifting into winter’s seemingly endless cold darkness.

I’ve always found autumn to be a season that fills me with melancholy—While there are so many lovely elements to the season, it’s all underscored by a feeling of sadness, knowing that warm days spent outside are drawing to a close and heralding the arrival of winter.

Season Cycle: Autumn leans into the emotional side of the season. Less ambient than the other Season Cycle installments, these songs are reminiscent of film soundtracks, music that emphasizes nostalgic, bittersweet feelings.

About Season Cycle:

It is remarkable how a small shift in the earth's angle relative to the sun has such a dynamic effect on the weather. I am fortunate to have lived my entire life in a place that has four distinct seasons: winter, spring, summer, and autumn, and I find the changing of the seasons to be a great source of inspiration. For my Season Cycle project, I set out to create a suitable soundtrack to last the whole year. Season Cycle: Autumn is the final installment in the Season Cycle series.

I acknowledge that these songs are not representative of how everyone experiences the seasons (my Northern Hemisphere / American Midwest bias is a big factor here). Even if you live in a part of the world where your experience of the seasons is not like my own, I hope that, even if just for a moment, these songs immerse you into the cold of winter, the blooms of spring, the humidity of summer, and the blazing colors of autumn.