Taken from the new album by Trotting Bear, “Places”, available everywhere April 22, 2016.
“We will go to places we have never been,” sings Andy Berkhout on the title track from Trotting Bear’s new album Places. Against the backdrop of a dynamic rhythm section, electric guitars, and vintage synthesizers, Berkhout and his bandmates explore the uncertainty that accompanies new experience and what it means to look forward into the unknown.
Places marks Trotting’s Bears first proper studio effort, and the band travelled outside of their Saint Louis home base to make it. The album was recorded at John Vanderslice’s all-analog Tiny Telephone studio in San Francisco. Producer and Engineer Beau Sorenson (All Tiny Creatures, Bob Mould, Death Cab for Cutie) recorded and mixed the band live to tape over a period of five days. “This was really the way we had to make this record to be true to the songs,” says Berkhout. “We got together in a room and just played, and I think you can really feel that excitement and energy when you listen to it.”
The album adds a number of new sonic flourishes to Berkhout’s familiar acoustic fingerpicking—from dark echoing vocals on “Hesitate” to a driving synthesized rhythm on “Open Port by the Sea”. Long-time collaborator John Donovan performed on guitar and several different keyboard arrangements, Steve Lenivy played bass, and Ryan Soles performed percussion. Mastering Engineer TW Walsh (Damien Jurado, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens) completed the finishing sonic touches on the album.
“Peace In The Still” is featured as the current “single of the week” of the radio show L’Attimo Fuggente.
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