"Wood, clay, porous rock, shimmering scale and slick cobblestone songs” and words along a similar textural vein splashed across Earth Treader Fen’s Bandcamp page, certainly caught my attention – and to me, communicated a promise of something unexpected, unusual and unique.
I first met Earth Treader Fen in a university Performance Art class, where their second performance assignment took my interest with a firm grip. Little did I know, Fen's musical talents extended far beyond the realm of performance art, leading me to discover their musical side, and with that, a fictional world they have transformed into a concept album which I will be delving into.
This world, meticulously illustrated musically and brought into reality through Fossil Future Unour – a hefty electronic, ambient and experimental concept album released in 2023 with 7 tracks. Each song leaks into the next, making a blissful connected experience for us to enjoy. Earth Treader Fen provides a description for us to peruse as we listen:
“Unour is a supercontinent in the very, very distant future. Humans are a long time gone, and so are the histories that came after them. The landmass is varied, and the soil is crackling with energy. The long arm of history is felt in the commonality of aberrant events: Things spark into existence, spark out of it, shift, warp. Nature has a new tendency to strange geometries. There is life everywhere - some sapient. Tributaries run nets through foliage and flats. Reactive minerals lace the soil. Long, slick creatures drape over rocky outcrops. A single eye peers from behind matted fur. A wagon is heaved through long grass. Holes and hills jut and pile. Stone monoliths steep in humid warmth. A big black band rings the sun. Dragonfly buzzing rides atop wind. Smoke pours from an igneous crack. Mists roll over. Rain clouds follow. A claw clenches dirt. A spine arches toward sky. The air twists in on itself. Energy crackles.”
Earth Treader Fen’s album description.
"Clay Plane" is the opener for Fossil Future Unour. It deludes you into thinking this is a moody orchestral piece, but soon takes a descent into something that isn't typically aligned with the orchestral genre – hard, punchy, stabby synths...! But only bubbling below the surface for now, teasing whats to come. We are treated to a liaison of low bell sounds, almost war-ish, intoxicatingly taunting and almost intimidating, but strangely comforting as a low hum begins to embrace certain parts of the track. It sounds like humanity and nature meshed into one.
This track is also considerably quiet in terms of how many instruments play together at once, which I found interesting and refreshing, giving the modified synths and effects their time to shine in a quiet corner of the track. Minimalism pays off in tracks like this, and the creative decision to limit sounds and layering is foolishly underrated – as it takes us through a stripped momentary experience, ironically more than what we are used to as modern-day music junkies. Sometimes, sparseness in a song allows the flavour to really pop. The track ends with an upper tempo, a section of the song which to me sounds like cogs turning – something that could almost fit into a robotic or factory-esque scene in a movie – maybe a creative avenue for Fen to think about and consider in the future.
The next song opens with what sounds like a Geiger counter and a mechanical cricket. "Saline Cascade" is my personal favorite out of all the tracks. The sounds all work in unison together perfectly, and it's alien enough so that my ears can still relate and pick up on the rhythm. Although, I doubt arranging a song such as this would be easy – the tempos are consistently changing.
Halfway through the song is when the beat is most human; I feel like moving to this song. I closed my eyes and imagined I was sliding down a hill full of dry red sand, contradictory to what the song is about, which in Fen's words is "a river overflowing with milky, saline water down through the pools to a steep white chalk cliff face." There are just enough weird oscillating bassy stabs and tubular bells dancing with one another in coordination to keep my being in tune with the music.
I want to dance to this song, but I’m not sure what moves I would pull out, but isn’t that fun to figure out...? The song is successful in keeping me on my toes, and that's why I like it. I also wanted to add, whether this is a deliberate choice or not, but the tinkering of magical-sounding metal pipes and bell sounds is giving... inklings of Tchaikovsky – if you're familiar!
The next track ‘Daba in Reeds’ demonstrates Fen’s willingness to research and incorporate traditional instruments into their musical palette. A Gamelan can be heard throughout the song, a beautifully intricate instruments from Indonesia, whose rich sound and cultural depth add a little oomph to the track. The cultural influence is detectable, and in particular, the delightful voice samples used are also reminiscent of the Southeast Asian influence.
"Jaw Dragger" is another one of my favorite tracks on this album. I could sense vocal inspiration from Frank Ocean, (though I admit I have cheated a little in saying that, I remember having conversations about Frank Ocean with Fen once, but regardless, I see it!), and even hints of Massive Attack scattered throughout. It's a very powerful, sonically textured piece, which upon looking at the description for this track provided by Fen, makes sense. The song details "a mountainous pile of haphazardly clustered mud, rock, and tile houses hunkering over an 'ancient energy source' " - very cool. The rawness of the song, coupled with the layered sounds, really brings the imagery to life. If I could use one word to describe this song – raw. It would be raw.
I'm having trouble finding the words to describe the vocals in "Skeela" - what begins the song is what I can only describe as elfish, but also slightly nasally, as if someone is blowing a raspberry – creating an interesting output of what I conclude to be the sound emitted from a creature, or an organism of some sort. "Skeela" leaks into the next song "Molten Thing" which really does sound like lava. Low plucks and twitchy pumps surround this soundscape, almost like the bubbling of molten lava. This song manages to capture the build-up of a volcano, the endless bubbling, boiling, popping of hot liquids and ashy clouds as the aftermath of a natural disaster.
Wrapping up the album nicely is the final track "Inro Vortices." A solemn, beat-heavy arrangement. Tabla drums are woven appropriately throughout this song, making a pleasant debut throughout. I like this addition to the track, it's a break from the hardness of the other sounds that heavily dominate. This track is lengthy, a calculated choice for a final song which I appreciate and ends on an uplifting note.
Fossil Future Unour is a compliment to Earth Treader Fen’s artistic talent, and their ability to create music that is both challenging, and interesting. If you feel like embarking on a journey that doesn’t require you to go far, I would recommend plugging in some earphones and letting Unour whisk you away into it’s diabolically fantastical futuristic world. The album is a must-listen for anyone who enjoys electronic music and ambient soundscapes.
Listeners can also explore other wonders Fen has orchestrated here on their Bandcamp page - https://earthtreaderfen.bandcamp.com
You can read an interview between Couchdog and Fen below. For a more detailed run down of Fen's creative process.
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