Album: The Hunters in the Snow – A Contemplation onPieter Breugel’s Series of the Seasons
Artist: Anemone Tube, Jarl & Monocube
Label: Aufabwegen
Catalogue no: aatp65
Tracklist:
1. Anemone
Tube & Jarl – The Gloomy Day
2. Jarl
& Anemone Tube – The Hay Harvest
3. Anemone
Tube & Monocube – The Harvesters
4. Anemone
Tube – The Return of the Herd
5. Jarl
& Monocube & Anemone Tube – The Hunters in the Snow
Let’s be honest – it’s
quite a brave move to base a work around a very famous set of paintings, but
then Pieter Breugel the Elder (c. 1525-1530 – 9th September 1569)
was a very singular artist in his day. His work often depicted the everyday lives
of ordinary people and his series documenting the seasons from early spring to
winter in five (originally six) canvases show peasants going about their daily
lives, in a way that we’ve lost touch with in our post-mechanisation world.
Over the course of more than five years Anemone Tube, Jarl, and Monocube crafted
a distinct set of pieces, each reflecting the gradual progress of the seasons.
Spring is a time of
renewal, a harbinger of better things to come, of brighter, warmer, and longer
days. However, in early spring, winter is still dragging its heels, unwilling
to let go completely until it has no choice, and in our first track (and
painting), ‘The Gloomy Day’ (Anemone Tube & Jarl) (early spring), the
coldest season loiters around still, a dark promise that it will return. Scintillating
droplets of tinkling bells gently fall like miniature stars from a cloud-laden
sky, coming to an ephemeral rest on ground that is already bursting with
potential and new life, signalling that spring will not be denied its allotted
time. It’s also a message to everything and everyone, quickening pulses and
gladdening hearts.
Life wakes and scrabbles
for light in the next in the series, Jarl & Anemone Tube’s ‘The Hay
Harvest’ (early summer). Soft burbling bubbles up from below to break the
crusty surface, its echoes reaching far and wide like a propagating wave,
alerting other dormant life, including that of humans, to shake off winter’s
grip, and to ride upon the warmer rays of the sun and to rejoice in the first
signs of the new green shoots. It’s a shimmering hallelujah, a surge of renewed
energy, and a dance of joy.
Anemone Tube &
Monocube bring us the report from late summer, ‘The Harvesters’: summer is
nearly reaching its apotheosis, and its bounties will soon be ready to drop or
be reaped. This is the time when Mother Earth is at her finest, in spite of
nurturing the next generation, but there’s a hint that this stage will be brief
– autumn is approaching, the winds get colder and sharper. A wave lapping upon
a shore and an inhaling and exhaling buzzing wafts upon drones and whispering
winds, a prompt reminding us that already the transformation has begun. Cold
whistles and whines swirl and roil, bringing with them the aromas of the new
season just around the corner. And then, before one knows it, autumn has
arrived, and ‘The Return of the Herd’ (a solo effort by Anemone Tube) announces
its ascendance in crashing waves, keening fanfares, and mournful washes. The
world changes quickly now, heading towards the time of the Great Sleep, and the
pulse of life slows and nature sheds her fineries.
‘The Hunters in the
Snow’, a collaborative work between all three artists, crashes in with a sense
of urgency thrilling through its densely droning pulsations. It’s the leanest
of the four seasons, when resources are scarce and nature can be harsh and
unyielding. It’s a confrontation between nature’s reticence, and necessity and
survival. This isn’t a season suited for the weak, but it’s also a season where
its lack of abundance pushes the instincts of the individual and the community
alike. In spite of the bleak prognosis, passages of string-like chords hint
that it’s possible to not only survive but flourish despite inclemency. And
it’s in the second half of the track (the longest one on the album) that
there’s the promise of renewal, when the life-giving warmth of the sun will
come once again, and Mother Nature will wake up and bestow her plenitude upon
us once more.
This is a collection of
compositions inviting us to meditate on the vitality of each of the seasons, to
feel the changes as one morphs into the one following, and to perhaps match the
beats of the earth’s pulse as we live through each one. In some ways it’s
asking us to return to a time when the seasons ruled our daily lives, when we
noticed their rhythms much more keenly and thereby appreciated them more. The Hunters in the Snow is a finely
tuned album which, oddly, I think should be played on a cold winter’s evening
in front of a roaring fire.
Available as a limited
edition CD of 333 copies in 8-panel digifile with embossed cover printed on
high quality natural paper, accompanied by a booklet which includes an essay on
Pieter Breugel’s landscapes by Sven Schlijper-Karassenberg and Kim Dohlich, as
well as a poem by Jean Gebser.
Purchase at the link below:
Psymon Marshall 2019.
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