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Music

Get Back in Touch with Nature Thanks to Common Eider, King Eider's 'Unhuulda'

This environmentally-focused one-man endeavor bends noise and feedback to his will, smoothing out harsh edges into something soothing, gentle, and quite lovely.

Photo courtesy of the artist

Common Eider, King Eider has always been an enigmatic project, marching to the beat of its own tribal drum and operating on the fringes of an already fringe scene—one that finds comfort in sweeping drones, stirring neofolk, field recordings, and pastoral near-silence. This endeavor (the collective effort of Rob Risk, Blaine Todd, and Andrew Weathers) bends noise and feedback to his will, smoothing out harsh edges into something soothing, gentle, and quite lovely; nature infuses every note and every pause, and that the project's latest album, Unhuulda, has a heavy environmental focus and its five movements sound like a dark forest evening is no coincidence.

As Fisk explained, "Unhuulda is the latest offering from Common Eider King Eider's own imprint, Caribou People. It comes with a handmade book of poetry, printed with metallic gold ink on blood red 100% recycled paper. This release marks the beginning of intentions for the label, focusing on beautifully created physical artifacts created out of recycled or repurposed materials. In lieu of pressing CDs, a download code will be included, with a donation for each release being directed towards environmental and/or indigenous land issues. The donation for Unhuulda has been given to Nunamta Aulukestai, an Akaskan Native collective opposing the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay. Please visit Nunamta.org for more information and to donate. A cassette version of the recordings (sans book) will be released spring 2016 on Black Horizons."

Stream Unhuulda in its entirety here, and purchase one of these gorgeous limited edition artifacts (only 150 total!) here, and if you're lucky enough to be at this week's Cascadian Yule celebration, be sure to watch Common Eider, King Eider's sure-to-be-wondrous performance.

Kim Kelly is disappearing into the pines on Twitter.