The above photograph is of the exact spot where I recorded Mirror, on the edge of a marsh at Crex Meadows SWA in May. I tried recording this song in many different places, and every take was always near some form of water. Although I had some takes that were near thrushes and oaks (both listed in the song), the words are a little less specifically about a particular ecosystem, and I was more interested in a soundscape that felt saturated with songs of every kind.
In this case, it was a little after sunrise, and there were yellow warblers and yellowthroats and field sparrows flying about and singing from low perches in the nearby bushes. There were also Canada Geese off in the distance calling intermittently. The last line of the song is “into the glowing air we will rise / hand in hand as stars in constellation”. Right before I began singing that line, the geese started to take off from across the basin, bugling with heightened intensity as they flew. This synergy, coupled with the density and variety of song, made this the best cut.
Preorder Field Song and receive a download of Mirror in advance of the release on 8/9.