0:00
13:28
1
Mycorrhiza I - The Undergrowth
13:28
2
Mycorrhiza II - Fruiting Bodies Fall
7:37
3
Mycorrhiza III - Wind-Blown Spores
11:48
4
Miyake I - Flare
9:35
5
Miyake II - Particle
9:19
6
Miyake III - Ring
10:52
Credits
Created at Berrywood, Bellingham Washington USA
Mycorrhiza / Miyake
July 26th, 2024
6 tracks
62:39
With On Idyl’s second full length album, the sprawling ambient opus Mycorrhiza / Miyake, [out July 29, 2024] on Passed Recordings, the guitarist and electronic composer explores the subterranean worlds of mycorrhizal fungi and the symbiotic relationship they have with trees and other plants. On the second half of the album, listeners are catapulted into the inner reaches of the solar system to witness a birth of sorts - as the sun flares up, it emits energized particles through a mass coronal ejection and we follow one such particle on its journey to earth, where it’s subsumed into cedar tree rings.
A question emerges: do mycorrhizal fungi play a role in this journey?
Mycorrhiza I-III:
Bass thrums evoke the slow but vigorous pushing and pulsing of hyphae through the undergrowth as guitar and synth loops rise and fall in arpeggiated sinews communing with roots and worms, transforming dust into life. Fruiting bodies form and push past the soil’s edge into the bright air. Some are noticed and picked by myriad forest foragers - porcine seekers and other wandering mycophiles. Some fare better, maturing and releasing their spores to follow whimsical, windblown paths as the next generation, born into turbulence, carried to unknown destinations, spreads into the soil and begins the cycle anew.
Miyake I-III:
At the center of the solar system, a journey begins. At first, the quiet brightness of the emission goes unnoticed by the lifeforms in near proximity, but the extreme intensity of the flare, muted by the cold expanse of vacuum between, alerts them. Slowly, an awareness of the impending danger emerges. All is not lost - most of the ejecta will pass by the inhabited worlds. But a short, extremely intense burst of cosmic rays collides with the atmosphere of a shining, water covered terrestrial planet creating an isotropic influx of energetic particles, many of which are trapped in an ecstatic dance, illuminating the night sky in a brilliant display for the inhabitants below. Slowly, newly created isotopes fall to the surface and are subsumed into water and soil, taken up by the flora of this world, tucked safely into the rings of trees.
For the most part, guitar plays support on this album, offering glistening textures and following the synth leads into the aether or churning a bass swell into darkly mulching undercurrents. It is present on every song, an accompanying element to the billowing soundscapes conjured by analog synth emulations, field recordings, and other sound effects. In addition to the fungal and cosmic themes, these songs are equally influenced by the wondrous array of different styles of ambient music from across the globe including dungeon synth (like Winterblood), Berlin school electronic (like Tangerine Dream), lo-fi experimental ambient pop (like Grouper), and drift / drone (like Hiemal).
Written and recorded from December 2023 through April 2024, the Mycorrhiza suite was inspired in part by the natural beauty of the Cascade foothills in Whatcom County, Washington, USA. Many fungi species, mycorrhizal and otherwise, have fruiting bodies that appear in the fall and it is always wondrous - a small patch where there was just bark and dirt is suddenly full of mushrooms; a log miraculously sprouts many an orange and brown phallus; half-moon pancakes form on trees - the further you go into the forest, the more different kinds of mushrooms you find.
During those same months, I learned about how physicists in Japan noticed a correlation between extreme solar events in the past and how isotopes produced by the collision of cosmic rays with the Earth’s atmosphere were reflected in tree rings. Extreme solar storms can be quite dangerous and the effects of one such suspected event - the Carrington event in 1859 - knocked out telegraph machines across the globe.
At the final stages of production in May 2024, the largest solar flares in a couple of decades occurred, creating auroras as far south as Northern California. For two nights, I watched the skies in my area (and one night we even drove to more open ground) but alas, snapping my own pictures of those auroras remained elusive.
Special thanks to everyone at Passed Recordings whose support and camaraderie means so much to me.
Special thanks to the WOIIFTM crew. You know who you are.
And, finally, special thanks to my Bellingham family: Justin, Jack, Lily, and especially Rachelle and Isabelle whose belief in me and patience with my music brain is immeasurable.
A question emerges: do mycorrhizal fungi play a role in this journey?
Mycorrhiza I-III:
Bass thrums evoke the slow but vigorous pushing and pulsing of hyphae through the undergrowth as guitar and synth loops rise and fall in arpeggiated sinews communing with roots and worms, transforming dust into life. Fruiting bodies form and push past the soil’s edge into the bright air. Some are noticed and picked by myriad forest foragers - porcine seekers and other wandering mycophiles. Some fare better, maturing and releasing their spores to follow whimsical, windblown paths as the next generation, born into turbulence, carried to unknown destinations, spreads into the soil and begins the cycle anew.
Miyake I-III:
At the center of the solar system, a journey begins. At first, the quiet brightness of the emission goes unnoticed by the lifeforms in near proximity, but the extreme intensity of the flare, muted by the cold expanse of vacuum between, alerts them. Slowly, an awareness of the impending danger emerges. All is not lost - most of the ejecta will pass by the inhabited worlds. But a short, extremely intense burst of cosmic rays collides with the atmosphere of a shining, water covered terrestrial planet creating an isotropic influx of energetic particles, many of which are trapped in an ecstatic dance, illuminating the night sky in a brilliant display for the inhabitants below. Slowly, newly created isotopes fall to the surface and are subsumed into water and soil, taken up by the flora of this world, tucked safely into the rings of trees.
For the most part, guitar plays support on this album, offering glistening textures and following the synth leads into the aether or churning a bass swell into darkly mulching undercurrents. It is present on every song, an accompanying element to the billowing soundscapes conjured by analog synth emulations, field recordings, and other sound effects. In addition to the fungal and cosmic themes, these songs are equally influenced by the wondrous array of different styles of ambient music from across the globe including dungeon synth (like Winterblood), Berlin school electronic (like Tangerine Dream), lo-fi experimental ambient pop (like Grouper), and drift / drone (like Hiemal).
Written and recorded from December 2023 through April 2024, the Mycorrhiza suite was inspired in part by the natural beauty of the Cascade foothills in Whatcom County, Washington, USA. Many fungi species, mycorrhizal and otherwise, have fruiting bodies that appear in the fall and it is always wondrous - a small patch where there was just bark and dirt is suddenly full of mushrooms; a log miraculously sprouts many an orange and brown phallus; half-moon pancakes form on trees - the further you go into the forest, the more different kinds of mushrooms you find.
During those same months, I learned about how physicists in Japan noticed a correlation between extreme solar events in the past and how isotopes produced by the collision of cosmic rays with the Earth’s atmosphere were reflected in tree rings. Extreme solar storms can be quite dangerous and the effects of one such suspected event - the Carrington event in 1859 - knocked out telegraph machines across the globe.
At the final stages of production in May 2024, the largest solar flares in a couple of decades occurred, creating auroras as far south as Northern California. For two nights, I watched the skies in my area (and one night we even drove to more open ground) but alas, snapping my own pictures of those auroras remained elusive.
Special thanks to everyone at Passed Recordings whose support and camaraderie means so much to me.
Special thanks to the WOIIFTM crew. You know who you are.
And, finally, special thanks to my Bellingham family: Justin, Jack, Lily, and especially Rachelle and Isabelle whose belief in me and patience with my music brain is immeasurable.