Cyrus Reynolds releases ’Foraker (Live Session)’ featuring S. Carey on January 10th through Swedish label Dumont Dumont.
On lead vocals 'Foraker' features solo artist and Bon Iver member (backing vocals and drums) S. Carey.
Cyrus about the recording of this live session:
"On a sweltering, California afternoon in September, I caught S. Carey on the middle of their Bon Iver Tour at The Forum and invited him over for tacos and we recorded a live version of our song together.
Even though it's a folk song at it's heart, we decided to avoid using any guitars, and instead opting for giving space to the vocal harmonies colored by glitched out Rhodes and Harp.
My wife, Lara Somogyi, who I wrote the song for, played the harp, and the vocal support was from Chamois who features on many of my songs (End of Days, New Ground) along with live electronic manipulations from Folial (Finder), who was able to create these swirling, organic loops out of the notes of the rhodes I was sending him.
It was a really special day and I'm really excited that we captured the essence of that moment in a completely raw way. It gives the song a whole new life when it exists in a physical space for a single moment.
The unreal cinematography is thanks to the dark arts of my good friend @curtismorgan and his lean and mean crew of @teddymuse and @kevin_denning .
The other musicians featured are incredible people and friends who I’m lucky to know and love.
Vox - @scareypics
Vox - @chamois_sings
Drums - @kielfeher
Glitch - @_folial_
Harp - @laraharp .
Huge thank you to @soyuzmicrophones for your support on this video. Every single instrument was recorded in stunning detail using one of their amazing Tube and FET hand-made microphones."
The unreal cinematography is thanks to the dark arts of my good friend @curtismorgan and his lean and mean crew of @teddymuse and @kevin_denning .
The other musicians featured are incredible people and friends who I’m lucky to know and love.
Vox - @scareypics
Vox - @chamois_sings
Drums - @kielfeher
Glitch - @_folial_
Harp - @laraharp .
Huge thank you to @soyuzmicrophones for your support on this video. Every single instrument was recorded in stunning detail using one of their amazing Tube and FET hand-made microphones."
About Cyrus Reynolds and more about the song Foraker:
Crafting a sound out of both love for the orchestra and for modern songwriting, Los Angeles-based artist and producer Cyrus Reynolds leans heavily towards the cinematic and dramatic. A classically trained composer (Royal Academy of Music) turned electronic sound designer (Output, Kanye), he draws his own sound from familiar textures and twists them into new sonic landscapes, finally holding them together by threads of interwoven narratives and personal lyrics.
Cyrus Reynolds
Cyrus Reynolds
Speaking about the track Cyrus explains ”Foraker, at its heart, is a love letter to my wife, harpist Lara Somogyi, and set in the Denali region of Alaska through the eyes of a wayward traveler. There’s this deep connection with the heart of the glacier (Foraker) and the outdoors and he keeps coming back to this same place to look for something that’s actually inside himself. It’s a harkening back to why I write music, and a new sort of authenticity for me. Before I was writing, I was manipulating all of these live string sounds for Output, and crushing them until they hissed like a wind and knocked and scratched like low hanging branches. I started using these sweeping 808s that hit you in the gut like a mile of ice is cracking beneath your feet and slow melodic synths that boomed from the distance like fog horns. Once I had the initial sound design recorded, I had a world that inspired me to write these heartfelt lyrics to Lara and everything suddenly was coming out into the open and all of these emotions and layers I didn’t know were there. Those are really precious and sought after moments in songwriting for me. When everything just clicks and you can get straight the emotion and feeling.”
S. Carey
Going on to talk about S. Carey’s involvement he says ”S. Carey came on to the song through a mutual friend I’ve written a couple of orchestral songs with, Ivan Howard, who knew Sean through Bon Iver. Once we spoke about the project, he recorded the vocals and it immediately had all of this vibe and character; introspection and the kind of joy you want to shout off a cliff. It was our first time meeting and working together, but I know Sean must have really connected with the message - because he really just got the song in every way. The song had a place and a heart, and then S. Carey came in and gave it a pulse and a new life.”
Cyrus Reynolds
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