The first song cycle collaboration by this new partnership is a highly adventurous and ambitious work, and one which explores a journey through dark places expressed in an improvisation-based language of strange sounds and textures, plus some unexpected left turns into electronic and choral music, before emerging from the woodland and into the morning light. I make a lot of records. In fact most years I release more albums than I make live performances. But this one is special to me in many ways. It’s intended as a definitive view of a key personal music destination.
 
Listeners to this song cycle might be surprised to see that I don't play a great deal on this album, and that my role is mainly that of editor, arranger and collage artist. I didn't need to write much music beyond the woodwind and choral parts because the improvisations by Jan Todd, with whom I’ve collaborated extensively over the last years, and which formed the starting point and backbone of much of this record were so strong. As soon as I'd collaged the music so generously made by Jan and by Yvonna Magda in their own studios, and added in the music from RMI and Nick Robinson into the mix, I was starting to hear what sounded like a completed sound world. And this suited me fine – by preference these days I’m a collagist, an arranger of sounds in space, a creator of wild structures.
 
This record was always intended as an album of songs and was at this early stage was still missing its focal point. And so it stayed for a year or so – and might well have remained voiceless, had my friend Martin Pyne not introduced me to the music of Claire McAllister via her Caminos album.  As soon as I heard it, I sensed that Claire’s understated intensity was just right for this record, although I still had no idea what I might ask her to attempt…. The answer came in the form of a book “The Hidden Life Of Trees” by Peter Wohlleben, passed on to me by my wife Julie Archer. This work gave me the concept of the Mast Year, and a theme for the album for me to suggest to Claire.
 
Luckily for me, Claire (who lives in the heart of the New Forest) bought into the idea and threw herself into the music to create the words and melodies which you hear now. Without her wholehearted understanding and scrupulous preparation for the recording sessions, the record would not exist. Time for a second wild card. While Claire was working on her music, it occurred to me that my long standing wish to write for a choir could produce some unusual music for the two Berlin School interludes on the record, which are performed by Radio Massacre International. I put pen to paper and composed the choral parts which were realised in the studio with help from the very talented Joseph Shaw and his small group of singers. In this world of thousands of new recordings each year, I hope I’ve realised my aim of creating something original and different.  Claire and I have put every shred of our creativity into birthing this music. What else is there to do?