Leafcutter John - The Forest and the Sea

Leafcutter John
The Forest and the Sea
Staubgold, 2007

Regular readers of my music writing will know of my love for the micro-genre, where already obscure music differentiates itself from its roots by an emphasis on singular elements or unique combinations of sound. I always think of mid-90s electronic music as the zenith of this, where albums and songs themselves were parsed out as "genres" unto themselves. Dizzying and ridiculous, this technique has the advantage of consistently allowing artists to reinvent themselves and avoid being typecast as creators of a certain type of music.

To me, a micro-genre that deserves greater attention than it receives is "laptop folk". Essentially predicated on the idea that "folk music" is that beardy stuff from the 60s and 70s that you don't tell your friends you listen to, laptop folk takes the familiar, organic elements of folk, and squeezes them through the electronic recording and processing equipment that has changed modern recording. This type of music captures the zeitgeist in an interesting way, as so much of our lives are mediated by technology (even 24bit, digitally remastered folk classics). Why music such as Leafcutter John is considered laptop folk and not simply the modern version of folk music I have no idea. Maybe its all those militant folkies pulling the world's strings and hiding their weed from us. This machine kills fascists, indeed. Bastards!

Taking cues from Christian Fennesz's thick fuzz-scapes and influenced by glitchy electronic pioneers such as Pole and arguably Mouse on Mars, Leafcutter John have sculpted a very moving and sophisticated album. The Forest and the Sea hybrids delicate fingerstyle guitar and multipart vocal harmonies with unpredictable electronic experimentation, using cut-ups of traditional folk instruments (strings, accordians, what sounds like dulcimers) and found sound to create an all-enveloping universe. It usually feels odd to discuss emotional attachment to something so influenced by digital processing, but the technology in Leafcutter John is used so orginally, and remains so intrinsic to the atmosphere they create, that it is impossible to think of the laptop as anything except a traditional folk instrument in their hands. Blended with the acoustic instruments in trad folk, these electronic phrases and twists offer a Brechtian push-pull effect, and offer a texture that gives the music a staying power.

As an added incentive to allow yourself to be completely immersed in Leafcutter John's music, The Forest and the Sea is a concept album, loosely telling the story of a couple that falls asleep in the deepening forest night, only to awake on a clifftop surrounded by the sea. The album pulls you along with them, in a somnambulant haze. I cannot recommend this album enough, especially to those who like their experimental music to still occasionally veer back toward melody and structure, or to those who need more grit in the gears to really engage with acoustic instruments and folk music. Leafcutter John's The Forest and the Sea is available via something called iTunes.