Earthy folk loops
From the Forest Floor is an instrumental folk-pop album from American songwriters Jenny Owen Youngs and John Mark Nelson that is meant to capture the shifting moods of being in the woods from “moonset to blue hour.” While not much more dynamic than the rattling of leaves in the wind, the brief record works as advertised, evoking a cozy, sylvan soundscape in the twee style of artists who have “moonset” and “blue hour” in their vocabulary.
It opens with “sunrise mtn,” a cheerful, anticipatory air with the percussive drive of mouse feet tapping on old floorboards or an early wooden machine whirring into action. Somebody hums the simplest of melodies over it, not so much building on the track as enjoying it as it goes by. The textures are mostly organic, airy and clicky like a handed-down piano with the hammers exposed, but there are some unobtrusive electronic drones and undulations that fit the sonic narrative just as well.
The rest of the morning/day portion of the cycle is like that. Hopeful pizzicato doodles that get a chill sent through them by some sparse piano notes from the sadder end of the key. The metallic squeak of fingers sliding across acoustic guitar strings. Basic bass vamps they probably stumbled upon like a neat-looking rock in a hiking trail. A few effects stick out the way hooks would on a song-based record, like the “Walk on the Wild Side” acoustic and electric bass played at the same time sound on “dove island,” or the sample of leaves crunching under footsteps that serves as the beat on “ambrosia.”
“Night-blooming” uses chirping insects while digital kick and snare signal a new, punchier direction. “Forager in the fern grove” is downright stomping, with a spooky guitar riff that might have come from an animate skeleton tickling its ribcage. All of a sudden this forest seems like the kind where witches and wizards gather to plan their nefarious activities. It’s sinister in a sprightly, smoke machines and plastic gravestones kind of way. When all color abruptly fades from the sky, there’s an uneasy finality to it, a breathlessness. Whereas most ambient pieces tend to end where they started, this one is missing the night section that would bring it full circle, which is subtly intriguing.
From the Forest Floor is like a music box with a cricket and some dirt in it, gentle and woodsy, a bit eerie and mysterious, not attention-grabbing but nonetheless interesting.
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