Tritium Forests

Tritium Forests is the debut solo album by Magic Tuber Stringband’s fiddle player, Courtney Werner. Inspired by natural soundscapes’ dynamic motion and drama with no standard beginning and end, and no recurring verses, chorus, or bridge, Courtney wanted her improvisational choices to stay true to nature and to create a sort of ambience. While Tritium Forests is entirely improvised, it was not entirely recorded live. Overdubs were an intentional part of the process. The record began with Werner combing through her field recordings, keeping notes on timestamps with interesting activity; be it whip-poor-wills duetting, barred owls chattering, lively choruses of dawn birds or frogs. Selected recordings were sent to Nathan Taylor (Softer Recordings), who balanced out frequencies, created space, and drew out certain voices. These tapes were the foundation for the layers of improvisation, the amount of layers determined by the material and what was required to collaborate with it. On “November 4 Echo 1,” where extensive overdubbing and extended techniques were utilized by Werner, it was to replicate small insect sounds that dominate the majority of South Carolina soundscapes in the summer. Tritium Forests is a testament to the biodiversity of the swamps, bottomlands, and riparian forests of the Upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina, near the Savannah River Site which borders Georgia. Werner, who typically collaborates in performance with other musicians, replicated the process by improvising with the voices in the field recordings. The resulting album is a transformative experience. The listener is transported to the Upper Coastal plain, immersed in its natural rhythms by way of thoughtful, delicate, and deep listening of a gifted improvisor.