About to release their 6th studio album ‘Song of the Rose’, the prolific Arbouretum continue to wonder on through the wilderness of rock. Since their first release in 2004 the band have been perfecting their craft of storytelling in song, both lyrically and sonically.
Signed to the fiercely independent label Thrill Jockey records, Arbouretum have been called “the best of the millennial classic rock bands, a guitar-fuzzed powerhouse.” Hailing from Baltimore US, the band travels through the ever changing landscape of alt-rock with effortless motion. From brooding Americana, to dark folk, sludge, doom, psych-rock and a fleck of prog, the expanding structures lead us from the mystical, poetic lyrics of David Heumann, told over grinding grungy riffs, into guitar solos which wind into improvisations between a group of respectful players painting a vivid sonic picture in homage to their predecessors.
THE QUIETUS described 2013’s album ‘Coming out of the Fog’ as ‘..the album Neil Young and Crazy Horse should have delivered instead of the disappointing Psychedelic Pill.’
Arbouretum’s lyrics explore elements of philosophy, mysticism, redemption, and the implications of human “progress.”
“Heumann is the kind of songwriter who, when he slips in a lyric about a tree or a bird or a running river, seems to have actually observed such objects, not just read about them in books. There’s something elemental about his fuzzed-drenched, Americana-infused anthems, something both grounded and deeply mystical.”- Jennifer Kelly, Pop Matters
2011’s album The Gathering was part inspired by the ‘The Red Book’ written by philosopher Jung in 1913 and throughout the course of his writings Heumann has continued to muse over the bigger questions whilst meandering through picturesque landscapes which his Instagram mostly reveals.
“If you look at creative people throughout history, one thing that many of them have in common is going on walks. I like to put myself in that company. I prefer the scenery of the natural world than that of the human-made world. So, in that sense, it does inform my writing, though not in a literal way.” – David Heumann
From their forthcoming release, titular track “Song of the Rose” completes a trilogy of songs from past records, calling back to “Song of the Nile” and “Song of the Pearl,” which have their roots in examining Taoist and Gnostic mythic traditions. Fittingly, “Rose” is also a nod to Heumann’s ancestor Richard Lovelace, a 17th century poet who penned “The Rose.”
The glimpses you can hear of the forthcoming album sound like a scrap book of all the best tales the band have delivered so far on their 5 previous albums, woven together with a new, contemporary finesse, having recorded for the first time with Kyle Spence at his studios in Athens, GA (Kurt Vile, Luke Roberts, Harvey Milk).
Click [here] for a more in depth interview on the new release.
So, Supersonic Festival goers, come and venture through the mystic landscapes of Arbouretum this June – we know you’re bound to get lost!
Preview full track ‘Fall From an Eyrie’ off their forthcoming album, ‘Song of the Rose’
