Trevor Powers formally released albums under the moniker Youth Lagoon.
Trevor Powers on Capricorn:
“The field recordings are mostly a patchwork of nature: wind, insects, rain, birds, frogs, streams, thunder but with their voices mangled and played with. I fell in love with the idea that everything has a voice. Combining those with piano melodies felt like some kind of Mister Rogers hallucination. I also created some crude digital instruments out of noise pollution, like planes and highways – but the most natural sounds were always the most alien. I wanted to make something that felt as peaceful as it was haunting. Anything that did that and served the music, I made use of.”
After a severe panic attack made his legs numb for a week, Powers knew something had to change. “Control is our god,” he says. “But it’s an illusion. We think we can dictate every day of our lives but that’s like playing chess during an earthquake. Sometimes the pieces move themselves.”
Drawing influence from Keiichi Koike’s Ultra Heaven, Richard Teschner’s puppets, and ancient folklore, Capricorn surfaced. After finding a cabin near the Sawtooth Mountains with an old piano, Powers filled his back seats with instruments, cassette recorders, and a computer, and left for a month alone. “We’ve forgotten how bizarre our planet is,” he explains. “Insects are their own gospel choir. Rain is a fucking fever dream. The more Earth I included, the more alien it felt.”
The project is releasing alongside a book and cassette with artwork designed by Los Angeles’ Collin Fletcher whose practice is based on experimentation and collaboration with musicians and artists across a variety of fields including his work with Warp Records, Hood By Air, and Halcyon Veil. The book releasing alongside the album also features a collection of photographs Trevor has taken over the last few years.
Trevor Powers
Capricorn
Fat Possum Records
Track Listing
1. First Rain
2. Earth To Earth
3. The Riverine
4. A New Name
5. Ghosts of Shanghai
6. Blue Savior
7. Pest
8. 2166
