Meld Your Mind In Music And Nature With “Herne’s Oak” From Harvestman

Sounds surround you, from the restless dawn to the deepest night, even amongst the soft stillness of a snow covered midnight, you can hear the wind howl. Perhaps the first music man created was trying to recreate the sounds of nature, vocally or via found objects. When we consider music this way, as something that connects us to the earth, no matter what electronic instruments or even AI created tracks may come our way, the decoration of time with sound is, at least somewhat, a spiritual experience.

There are many musicians who understand this to some degree, but perhaps none as tenaciously experimental and varied as Steve Von Till. The venerable artist explored new paths of heaviness with Neurosis and Tribes of Neurot and has given us tremendous pastoral dark folk as a solo artist, but today we are presenting and discussing Harvestman, Von Till’s psychedelic ambient project and debut his latest video, “Herne’s Oak” from the forthcoming third installment of the Harvestman 2024 project, Triptych. Check out the gloriously trippy video below!

“Herne’s Oak”came from Von Till and producer/musician Sanford Parker running a deer antler along a busted open steel water tank Von Till accidentally destroyed with his snow plow. It is only natural that a couple of guys with an antler and something big and resonant would put these things together in a percussive way, but for Von Till and Parker, these sounds grew into two previous tracks as well as “Herne’s Oak”. This isn’t mere musique concrete or field recordings, the duo employ an array of synthesizers, guitars, and other noises to bring this track alive, exploring the depth and fragility of fleeting clashes of man and nature.

The first half of the track envelopes the listener in a growing sense of unease and tension as these elements intensify. Suddenly, they drop out into a slow synth arpeggio as new sounds begin to layer themselves over the track, relieving the tension for an otherworldly calm, the warmth of sun on an alien planet as its terrain of weird erosion patterns and the familiar clang of antler on steel returns as your mind drifts into the vastness of the natural world and your own fleeting insignificance in the passing shadows.

“Herne’s Oak” plays Twister with your consciousness, warping dissonant, familiar, and pleasant sounds into a winding deer trail through the forest of synapses. The video reflects this, as we see a black and white buck braying soundlessly, the white snow of an old television and warping landscapes give way to deeper levels of surrealism and the LSD-tinged color palette of a western skyline.

“Herne’s Oak”will appear on Triptych: Part Three, the third installment of a series of records collecting Harvestman recordings and each released on full moon days on Neurot Recordings. Part One was released on the Pink Moon, Part Two on the Buck Moon, and Part Three will be released October 17th on the Harvest Moon. It features Von Till and Parker as well as Kevin Martin (The Bug), Douglas Leal (Deafkids), Wayne Adams (Petbrick), and Dave French (Yob). The scope and planning of this project is impressive, and having listened to Part One and Part Two before writing this, I am eagerly awaiting the final installment.

You can pre-order the vinyl for Triptych: Part Three here. Follow Steve Von Till on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and his website.