LEFT VESSEL RELEASES NEW SINGLE
“THIS YEAR BE” INSPIRED BY SHAMANIC JOURNEY
DEBUT LP ONE (AND DRIFTLESS) OUT ON JUNE 25TH
VIA GIFTSHOP RECORDS
Photo: Elisa Terrazas Campbell
LISTEN // WATCH: “THIS YEAR BE”
Oregon-based sound artist Nick Byron Campbell, who records and performs under the moniker Left Vessel, has released his latest single, “This Year Be.” The song appears on his forthcoming debut LP One (and Driftless) mixed by Cory Hanson (of Los Angeles-based band Wand) and out on June 25th via GiftShop Records. “I have an aunt who’s a shaman. For a while we were training together and she was showing me the art of shamanic journeying,” Campbell recalls. “In my journeys with her, I took the form of a fox that would disappear down into a hole in a creek bed by my grandma’s old house in Ohio, where I grew up. Inside that hole was another world. This song came out of those journeys,” he adds. “The faint vocal hook that trails out at the end of the song was my shamanic song that was given to me during one of the journeys.”
“Envision the idyllic summer day, full of bright sunshine tempered by a cool breeze. There’s always a feel of optimism on those days, coupled with an innate connection to nature, and an almost inexplicable urgency to make the most of the world around us,” said Mother Church Pew in the song’s premiere. “With a dreamy folk haze, those summer sensations are synthesized into song on ‘This Year Be’…Campbell’s delicate-yet-expressive vocals are set beautifully to an acoustic melody full of playful banjo and building strings. The song is a bright, orchestral folk jam that’s a perfect refresher on these summer days.”
“This Year Be” follows the release of album track “Your Winter,” inspired by life transformations and deep connection with others who are on a completely different trajectory.
Campbell, a multi-talented composer, artist, and indie-folk maestro has previously helmed the bands Wages, Sincere Gifts, and Arizona, and his music has been featured in films and television shows. When constructing Left Vessel’s debut LP One (and Driftless) Campbell thought: "What if you could make music with a tree? Not cutting it down and turning it into an instrument, but actually with a living tree, in a way that was beautiful musically but allowed that tree to go on living its life once you were done performing with it?” He set out to do just that and traveled to Minnesota's Driftless Area in search of willing wooden participants.
One (and Driftless) features several tracks recorded with trees, complete with ambient sounds of the forest in the background—chirping birds, fluttering wings, and feet keeping time on crunchy, fallen leaves. Campbell used his own unique instrumental creation he dubbed "the arbow." The arbow (a play on the Spanish word “arbol,” for tree) is a live tree that is strung, bowed or plucked, and amplified—all in a way that doesn't damage the tree. The core idea is to find a way of making “non-extractive” music: music that doesn't hurt our world but works with it. This video illustrates Campbell’s process: https://vimeo.com/366830629/bff361fd5b
Left Vessel’s swirling brand of indie-folk, though experimental in its creation, is imminently accessible due in large part to Campbell’s adeptness with winding, catchy hooks. Taken as a whole, One (and Driftless) is a collection of songs about transformation: ecological, societal, personal, and romantic.
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