The Ivytree – Unburdened Light
Recital – Out Now
The Ivy Tree is the project of San Franciscan musician Glenn Donaldson who was the founder of Jewelled Antler Collective who, according to wiki were best known for their “Nature Psych” or “Outdoor Folk”, in which whole albums are recorded “in the field” and/or incorporate field recordings and the sounds of nature. Other projects that released albums under the Jewelled Antler banner included Hala Strana and The Skygreen Leopards who were played regularly on FRUK back in the day of those lovely live transmissions.
The Unburdened Light features unreleased recordings from 2001 – 2004 and will be released via Sean McCann’s Recital label as 300 First Editions of 300 LPs on black wax along with an 8-page 9″x9″ booklet of Glenn’s collages. Sean recalls:
“Between 2001 and 2005 Donaldson published a handful of discs under the names The Ivytree and The Birdtree. These boiled down and tanned the patient, outdoor ambiences of the long-form instrumental recordings. These were slow and pastoral and pensive songs, carried by Glenn’s haunting voice: my favorite of his work. Glenn recorded outside with field-recorders and mini-discs: in forests, headlands, and tunnels of the Bay area.
“On a whim in 2017, I reached out to Glenn and asked him if he wanted to publish a “best-of” The Ivytree as a limited LP. This idea blossomed and provoked Glenn to dig through his vast mini-disc archive, where he unearthed some forgotten jewels. The recordings were trickling into my email – one by one, each better than the last… Ranging from the Robert Wyatt-esque piano ballad “Evil is Circular” to the gentle melancholy of “All the White Plumes” that could belong on Richard Youngs’ Sapphie. Unburdened Light carries on the warm breeze and innocence of the early 2000s CDr culture.
“So our project then turned into publishing a new album of unreleased Ivytree recordings. A full circle youthful wish now ripens in my adulthood. I am honored to have stirred up the bees-nest to deliver you these tragically honeyed songs.”
Order via Recital