Today Jack Hertz released his The Wind Speaks to Branches on the Hill LP via his netlabel Aural Films. In addition, the Bay-area electronic musician has announced that proceeds from the release will be donated to the Plant a Billion Trees campaign. Launched by The Nature Conservancy in 2008, the project has worked to restore Brazil’s Atlantic Forest as well as forests in the United States and China.
While Brazil’s Atlantic Forest once stretched across a broad swath of its Southern Coastal region, as well as inland, only 12% of the forest now remains. Providing vital functions such as filtering our air and water, while storing carbon dioxide in the fight against climate change, our forests are also home to a staggering diversity of flora and fauna. With carbon emissions out of control due to reckless industrialization, the trees are our last hope!
Jack Hertz vast catalog of electronic and ambient music shows him to be a tireless sonic voyager. Additionally, though, it reveals his enduring dedication to the Natural World, and the role indigenous cultures have played as stewards of the Earth and its resources. Along the way, trees have provided continuing inspiration for his work. Hertz recognizes the powerful connection First Peoples have always had with the flora of this planet, and he seems to share their spiritual connection to the essential role trees play in our planetary existence.
Across its 10-tracks, The Wind Speaks to Branches on the Hill teams with a myriad variety of aural life. Ambient in approach, Hertz weaves variegated tapestries of sound from his various instruments and devices. Acoustic and electronic instrumentation issues forth as though directed by organic forces of wind, water, wood and fire. Occasionally, snippets of melody coalesce from the bobbing canopies like a trill of bird song or wind thru the leaves, but mostly Hertz allows this music to drift as though animated by natural processes of elemental interplay.
The Wind Speaks to Branches on the Hill is now available on CD, as well as via digital download and streaming. You can give the album a listen/purchase using the Bandcamp embed below…
