Leafcutter John - The Forest and the Sea

Leafcutter John
The Forest and the Sea
[Staubgold, 2006]

London-based John Burton has been producing interesting variations of traditional electronic music for several years. Not happy with the limitations of either analog or digital sound sources, under the Leafcutter John moniker Burton has released several albums featuring his uniquely introspective amalgam of groove-based and electro-acoustic music. Unlike contemporaries Four Tet or Matmos, Leafcutter John preferred abstraction to propulsive grooves, which perhaps explains his status as a peripheral collaborator to the mainstream of electronic music.

Soon into the pastoral eloquence of album-opener “Let It Begin”, subtly metallic drones begin to add a dirt-ridden subtext. Likewise, in “Maria in the Forest”, narratively-suggestive location recordings are gradually transformed into digital noise leading to an abruptly interruption by more folk-inspired musings on acoustic guitar. Propulsive rhythms issue from the inky depths of drone partway through “In the Morning”. A piano and bell cascade into digital abstraction, only to return as lullaby “Seba”. All of the tracks demonstrate an obsession with the fractal-like textures created by acoustic instruments, and Burton allows the listener enough time to breathe everything in.

The Forest and the Sea is an attempt to tell a story; this gesture is not alien to either electroacoustic or folk music. Leafcutter John has proven quite adept at sculpting with the temporal nature of sound. With this new release, he demonstrates that what is normally a cold and cerebral aesthetic can be a bodily experience as well.

MP3: Leafcutter John - Seba

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