New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Portland band Sea Caves announces upcoming album Bright Forest, due out February 5, with the release of first single, "Spanning the River." The instrumental layering is orchestral and intricate, swelling and receding as
Shiloh Halsey's vocals and flute weave around the tracklist like fleeting forest dwellers, teasing with somber, primal melodies.
The result is a collection of uplifting soundscapes evocative of the Pacific Northwest. Vocals washed with reverb glide beneath layers of guitars, flutes, and drums, creating a magical atmosphere infused with fractured images of nature, which the record's title hints at. "There is a duality to the title," says Halsey. "Bright Forest might be how some animal would refer to a city, or human civilization, looking down on it from the edge of the woods. It is wide-eyed with wonder, but there's a sadness lingering beneath: it doesn't understand that it is looking at the cause of its own destruction."
Halsey's fascination with nature's enchantment and it's intermingling with our personal stories shines through on Bright Forest. Songs like "Fault Lines" deliver lyrics like "Tall mountains thundered over/as we all stumbled to the lake/the air was swift and sending/messages and warnings to our heads," creating a sense of mystery and unknowing about the natural landscapes that the album finds itself steeped in. Meanwhile, this song's focus on an earthquake that levels a town harkens somber overtones, yet still carries the continually woven theme of new beginnings. The music mirrors this combination of beauty and tragedy, featuring syncopated drum and guitar tracks that drive songs like "Islands," while demonstrating reflective moods and melodies in songs like "Urchins" and "Tigers." In each song, a whimsical jubilance emerges under a veil of shadows as the flute chases notes, with hook-laden melodic vocals haunting every turn.
The album's first single, "Spanning the River," written after
Halsey returned from a wildlife survey trip in the Cascades, delves deeper into nature's unknowable power.
Halsey sings, "There's something about the immense unknowing/the main line to the source," and this line drives the song deeper into wonder and obscurity. The interplay between flute and finger-style guitar conjure images of winding rivers, flowing down from mountains and into darker, hidden corners of the forest. Listening to all of this at once feels like being lost in a sea of trees, lakes and streams, while animals walk amidst all of it--their own city. The forest.
Bright Forest Track Listing
Spanning the River
Islands
Birds
Winter
Accelerate
Fault Lines
Tigers
Border Walls
Stoned in the Road
Mesa
Urchins
There's This
Praise for
"Sea Caves exude a cool, polished pop sound perfect for these hot Portland days. Sea Caves have become a unique beast dressed in beautiful garb, with enough wit and playfulness in their music to keep you coming back for more. Overlapping vocals and carefully orchestrated guitar melodies are the name of the game, as the quartet weaves tunes driven by heavy piano, horns, and bass. This is pure post-rock candy, if you ask me." -Portland Mercury
"Intricate arrangements powered by vivacious songwriting" -Heave Media
Somewhere in between an EP and a full-length album, the nine-song Slow Wave from Sea Caves showcases the Portland band's water-polished songs and precise musicianship. Sea Caves are effective at building a mood, and don't shy away from grandiosity, giving their elaborate songs a stately and austere quality that still conveys plenty of emotion, particularly on the epic "Shades of Grey". -Portland Mercury
Slow Wave highlights the band's considerable chops—fluttering, jazzy drumming; mathy guitar licks; off-kilter vocal harmonies—and its ear for writing pretty epic pop songs that balance a Rush-style geekiness and an early Minus the Bear-style love of harmonics and precise noodling. -Willamette Week
