Description Vinyl LP pressing. 2021 release. The mystifying 9th album in the Field Works series, Cedars combines cosmic Americana with Western ambient and Middle Eastern influences. Delicate layers of pedal steel, banjo, oud, and hurdy-gurdy float atop looping guitar drones to create a soothing, atmospheric chamber where folk and electronic music coalesce. Set to Arabic and English poetry, the song cycle examines some of Earth's most iconic and ancient forests, revealing our complicated relationship with the natural world. For this special dual-language release, Field Works producer Stuart Hyatt has assembled a supergroup of musicians, poets, and artists. The album is narrated by Youmna Saba and H.C. McEntire. Instrumentalists include Marisa Anderson, Fadi Tabbal, Dena El Saffar, Danny Paul Grody, Bob Hoffnar, Tomás Lozano, Nathan Bowles, Alex Roldan, Youmna Saba, and Stuart Hyatt. Renowned illustrator María Medem brings poems by Todd Fleming Davis and Youmna Saba to life in the accompanying full-color Risograph comic book; and longtime Field Works collaborators PRINTtEXT design the packaging. 1 La'ali' 2 Thak-Al-Yawm 3 Badron Wa Qina? 4 'Araha 5 In?Ikas 6 'Aylul 7 Ar-Ra?Il 8 ?Alaqah 'Azaliyyah 9 The Sharp Smell of Cedar 10 Before We're Born 11 The Scars of Recent History 12 In the Gloaming 13 Drowning in a Sky of Cotton 14 Each Year 15 In the Floodplain 16 The Pasture
