Husband and wife duo The Saxophones‘ new album ‘To Be A Cloud‘ (out on June 2nd) was influenced by the peaceful bays, ridges and beaches of Inverness, California. With musical nods to Eden’s Island and Stan Getz’s bossa nova records, the overall effect is akin to Lee Hazlewood’s My Autumn’s Done Come if Martin Denny produced.
Today they have shared the opening track from the record – The Mist, also our Song of the Day.
“All of my songs start as a stream of conscious journal entry. I think “The Mist” exemplifies this as it darts from subject to subject and dwells on paradox and all the conflicting thoughts running through my mind. It feels like a very honest reflection of my inner world.
“The Mist” considers the belonging I feel in the natural world, but it questions whether the natural world wants anything to do with me. It deals with my love for California but my desire to escape when living here becomes untenable and the sky turns black with smoke. It dwells on the hopelessness of the independent artist trying to reach ill defined goals. And it considers the way Americans’ mythologize the United States
I’m trying to make sense of the world, but it all runs through my hands like sand. Hopefully this song can help others feel less alone when they got caught in the swirl of their own confusing contemplations.” – Alexi Erenkov
The video was Directed by Rainbow Tunnel Films – https://linktr.ee/rainbowtunnelfilms
To Be A Cloud was recorded at Phil Elverum’s (The Microphones, Mount Eerie) Unknown Studio in Anacortes, WA last autumn. A former Catholic church where the pair lived during 24/7 recording sessions, time was no object as they experimented and developed the sound of the record. Its magical setting and ample space provided natural acoustics for Alexi’s arresting vocals which were recorded live to 24-track tape, suspending them in an ambiguous historical and chronological context between analogue and digital. Enhanced by Alison’s percussion alongside the bass and keys of Richard Laws, together they made the most of the studio’s many instruments which fill out and bookend their exploration of the billions of years of evolution that have led to this moment in time.
“The title was inspired by a passage of Zen monk Thich Nat Hanh’s writing in No Death, No Fear which both calms my own fear and leaves me with doubts,” explains Alexi, of the album channelling its influence of comforting yet disturbing limbo. “He uses clouds as a metaphor to illustrate the impermanence of all things, suggesting clouds are no different from people in their fleeting nature. Suffering arises when we try to preserve a person, a moment, or an experience and fail to recognize that all things are both fleeting and cyclical. Hanh contends the cloud does not die, it simply changes form, and if we look deeply, we can see the cloud in the rain.”
To Be A Cloud is released on June 2nd on limited green vinyl, super-heavyweight audiophile black vinyl, CD and digital. Pre-order here.