Todd Umhoefer’s first album of experimental folk as Old Earth, Out the spheres of The Sorrowful Mysteries, dealt with the death of Umhoefer’s mother, a loss that also haunts Old Earth’s follow-up album, *uncollected voices on The orchard moan. Umhoefer intends for the new release to be his last mournful album before moving on to happier muses, which would position The orchard moan as the Purgatorio to the last record's Infernofitting, given how the album describes grieving as a sort of purgatory.
“This is the type of place that tells you, ‘you can stay, you can go,’” Umhoefer sings. “This is the type of place where you can get lost.”
The orchard moan is an even denser puzzle than Sorrowful Mysteries, in part because like Phil Elverum’s Mount Eerie project, each Old Earth album builds on the mythology of the last, and also because the album is sequenced as a single, 22-minute track. The album packs a lot of sonic and tonal shifts into that third of an hour. Voices weave in and out, including those of Elisabeth Albeck and Conrad Plymouth’s Chris Porterfield, as Umhoefer’s strummed bass guitar is greeted by splashes of piano, rumbles of percussion and ambient clouds that contrast the antique spirit of these roots-gospel songs. It’s a record that’s not afraid of empty spaces and silencesat the 14-minute mark, Umhoefer recites a three-minute poem a cappellabut there’s a vital urgency to the prose that keeps the album driving to its close.
“This is the bridge that I’d jump from if wolves were at my heel,” he sings at the album’s climax, “these are the things that I’d grab first in a fire.” Those are the priorities echoed throughout The orchard moan: survive, then take stock of things, in that order.
Old Earth plays a free album release show Thursday, April 15 at Mi-Key’s on 811 N. Jefferson at 9 p.m with Jay Flash and JM Airis. After the show, *uncollected voices on The orchard moan will be posted for free at virb.com/oldearth.
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