I got this picture of this sunset a couple of weeks ago in Nottinghamshire, a glorious pink and orange sky over the tree tops a few miles south of Nottingham. We stayed in a camping pod on a vineyard for a couple of nights. It already felt like the end of summer, that melancholy you get when you notice suddenly that its dark much earlier.
This song, Winter In The Woods, is from a duo known as Leaving Laurel (Pierce and Gordon- both made dance music separately before sharing some demos with each other in Laurel Canyon one day and then working on it together). Winter In The Woods is seven minutes of melancholy, starting ghostly and fragile, fading in with some static and then a gorgeous, introspective piano. Eventually a beat picks up and pushes it forward but there's no mistaking the bittersweet nature of it. The topline melody pulls at the heartstrings. The synth strings add some weight but it all feels pretty sad- dancing with tears in my eyes as Ultravox had it back in 1984.
Daniel Avery- him again- has remixed it and we're straight into classic Avery mode, drums that sound like they were recorded inside a giant metal box (and as his studio is a shipping container they probably were), the synth strings slightly in the distance and that cavernous reverb surrounding everything. This fits right in with the music he's been making recently- Lone Swordsman, Love + Light, Together In Static. Beautiful, moving, instrumental music.
Tragically, underlining all the melancholy present in the original and the remix, Pierce passed away in April this year after a terrible struggle with his mental health- Winter In The Woods, the remix and the forthcoming album are a tribute to Pierce and is dedicated to his memory and comes with the reminder that it's ok to not be ok and that you're not alone and that we all should 'slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why' (Pierce Fulton).
RIP.
Wonderful music, Adam, and so sad at the end to read of Pierce's passing. I think you captured the essence of the music beautifully in your words and Daniel Avery's remix is similarly sympathetic, adding another dimension to the melancholic sounds. And that final quote from Pierce is so relevant to the strange times that we're currently living in.
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