As a Pagan Buddhist, animism – the belief that all living beings and aspects of nature possess agency and consciousness – is central to my worldview and way of life. I cast the widest possible animistic net, believing not only that plants and animals are awake and alive, but also that stones, mountains, and creeks participate in the phenomena of mind. Likewise, I believe that our cherished belongings, tools, and – in particular – musical instruments awaken through use; they become imbued with life as they are woven into our lives.
It feels quite true to me that the instruments played on “Unlit Trail” are animate. Though the quality of their awareness is quite unlike my own, our relationship to one another is deep and flows through the long story of my own migrant heritage. Each instrument that appears on this record originates from either my current homeplace, or a land inhabited by my ancestors. The only exception to this affiliation is Mariam’s piano, which resounds briefly on “Beyond My Camp”. I had no previous fellowship with this instrument, but felt it appropriate to invite the piano into the recordings, as an emissary of that particular household and landscape.
The melodeon (pump organ) on “Unlit Trail” was made in Great Britain out of Finnish birch over one hundred years ago. I am also wrought from Finnish and British stock. The guitar is a 1960’s Crafton built on the west coast of Sweden, homeland to many of my förfäder. The bells played are of mixed origin, but call to mind the Bronze Age sounds of Scandinavian ancestors. The dulcimer was crafted fifty years ago in the mountains of California, the home of my family now for four generations. I play the dulcimer primarily with a bow, evoking the ringing, buzzing tones of Swedish nyckelharpas,
and the even more ancient sound of the Nordic jouhikko. I carved the reeded flute myself from a bamboo-like grass native to California. The rattle (depicted on the back cover) is simply a bundle of thin branches harvested in Big Sur from wild Bay Laurel trees. Laurel leaves have been used for millennia in numerous parts of California and Europe for purification, rite, and ritual.