On Friday (August 15th, 2025), Fletcher Tucker releases his new album Kin, featuring contributions from Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie), Mariam Wallentin (Fire! Orchestra, Mariam the Believer), Chuck Johnson, Sean Smith (LFZ), and Spencer Owen. In his recent review of the album, Thomas Blake described Kin as sounding like nothing else, an album full of ritualistic sonic patterns and precisely detailed shifts in tone and mood.
Tucker has just shared the final single from the album, Great Flowering Mind, on which he shares:
“‘Great Flowering Mind’ is a song of kinship with the more-than-human – boulders, rivers and trees, spirits of place and long-dead ancestors. And it is a song which describes and embodies the practice of kin-making (kinning). It is the heart-center and thesis statement of Kin. It is my personal story of uncovering belonging, and endeavoring to re-enchant my chosen homeplace (Big Sur) – establishing totemic nodes of relationality, cultivating awareness, reciprocity, and communion. This is, simply put, the great spiritual undertaking of my life: becoming kin.”
Track Credits: Fletcher Tucker: Svensk säckpipa (Swedish bagpipes), percussion, 12-string electric guitar, hummel (bowed Swedish zither), bells, oak branches, voice, recording, Sean Smith (LFZ): Minimoog Model D synthesizer, drums, Spencer Owen: drums, Chuck Johnson: pedal steel, mixing, mastering.
In a recent Off the Shelf feature, Tucker offered a fascinating insight into his home in Big Sur. He shared a photo of a Ponderosa Tree (as featured in the video above). Describing its significance, he said:
“Just beyond the fence of my cabin stands a great ponderosa pine tree. He’s (he feels quite male to me) been growing in that spot for about 300 years. This property, which sits high on the western slope of the Santa Lucia Mountains, rests in an ecotone—or a site of overlapping ecological niches—so almost every tree native to Big Sur is present on the land and visible from my bedroom window. We have redwoods, cedars, madrones, tan oaks, coast live oaks, bay laurels, sycamores, big leaf maples, and ponderosa pines for neighbors. I love them all. But this pine in particular is an important companion to me. He stands directly in front of my bed and looms above me in my outdoor bathtub—where I do a lot of my writing. Pine song (wind through pine boughs) is my favorite sound—it erases my disparate thoughts like nothing else and grounds me in this enchanted, numinous wild world. With his numberless, broad branches, this ancient ponderosa generously fills my life with pine-song.”
KLOF Mag Members can read the full Off the Shelf feature here:
In addition to his artistic work, Tucker is the co-founder of Wildtender, an organisation dedicated to helping people cultivate intimacy with the earth and reciprocal relationships with the natural world. Tucker is also teaching faculty at the Esalen Institute and the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.
He also spoke about Kin in more detail on the latest podcast from the Esalen Institute, which you can listen to here:
Kin (August 15th, 2025) Gnome Life Records
Pre-Order: Bandcamp | Gnome Life