Portland, Oregon’s East Forest (the solo works of Trevor Oswalt, featuring various contributing artists), is set to self-release his seventh full-length effort, entitled Orbits, on Nov. 11.

A revelatory excursion in sound, Orbits serves as the auditory equivalent of a sonic journey through the endless beauties and intricacies Mother Nature has to offer. Fans of The Album Leaf, Ólafur Arnalds, and The American Dollar will succumb to Oswalt’s elegant ambience, subtle electronic beats, delicate vocals and all-encompassing, soothing aura. Aided by gorgeous string arrangements and layers of tranquil textures, every track carries an impressive posture all its own, but to absorb Orbits in its entirety is an experience that will both enlighten and relax the listener.

You can stream Orbits in full below, where you’ll also find an in-depth statement from Oswalt regarding the album.

When asked about the impetus for the album’s formation and his thoughts on the end result, Oswalt offered the following:

‘Orbits’ came about after a commission from an aerial dance company asking me to write the score for an outdoor show staged in a forest. The opportunity allowed me to dig really deeply into the East Forest catalogue to rework, remix, and generally revisit a lot of classic tracks from the seven-year history of the project, as well as write several new songs. I think the resulting album is the most cohesive East Forest record to date, and probably the first time where I felt I was really starting to hone in on the sound I’ve been wanting to express over the years. A lot of the previous East Forest albums have been processes of discovery in exploring what kind of sounds I could even make, but with ‘Orbits’ there was something freeing about the process of merging old and new work that helped to synthesize exactly where the project is at in this moment in time.

I’m particularly excited by the combination of electronic and acoustic elements; namely the weaving of a live string quartet with the addition of more beats. I wanted to explore the energy between an etherealness and a more expansive and dynamic sound — but to create an album that was easy to chill out to, yet deep enough to take you on a real journey if you decided you wanted to go down the rabbit hole.

You can view the video for the single “Hold On, Again” below.

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Brian Leak

Editor-In-Chief. King of forgetting drinks in the freezer. Pop culture pack rat. X-Phile. LOST apologist.

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