Eleven songs celebrating the natural beauty of Valle de Bravo, Mexico, while also highlighting the environmental crisis facing the area.
Songs for the Mist Forest is the second album by childhood friends, classical guitarist Morgan Szymanski and artist Tommy Perman. While their first album explored sounds of the Scottish woodland where Tommy’s parents live, their new album is inspired by Morgan’s ranch in the mist forests of Valle de Bravo, Mexico.
There’s a list of where you can buy the bio-vinyl LP here.
You can watch videos and read about all 11 songs here.
And you can read reviews of the album here.
The music evolved from a soundtrack Morgan and Tommy produced for the documentary film El Dragón de los Bosques de Niebla (The Dragon of the Mist Forest). The documentary shines a light on the ecocide that’s happening in Valle de Bravo. Overdevelopment is destroying the forests that are home to Abronias, beautiful small reptiles native to the region and the ‘dragons’ of the film’s title.
El Dragón de los Bosques de Niebla documentary by Ambiente CieloRojo.
Through 11 new compositions Morgan and Tommy expand on the documentary’s theme of environmental crisis. Their music fuses Morgan’s guitar-playing with numerous field recordings of Valle’s local wildlife and habitat using a series of innovative production techniques. The album highlights certain species that are close to disappearing: fireflies, birds, crickets, and Abronias which are now on the red list.
Together Morgan and Tommy have crafted a suite of music that celebrates the beauty and vitality of our natural world and provides a call-to-action to save it while we still can.
10% of the songwriting and recording royalties of all tracks goes to the wonderful EarthPercent charity which distributes money to organisations that meaningfully address the climate and nature crises.
There is no way to release music without having some impact on the environment, but we have done our best to produce as sustainable a product as possible. We have worked with Seabass (Scotland’s certified carbon-neutral pressing plant) to press 300 records on bio-vinyl. Bio-vinyl is a product made by the Dutch chemical company Plastchem, using recycled cooking oil. So, although it is still PVC, it has a significantly smaller ecological footprint than regular PVC (90% smaller). Full details can be found on Plastchem’s website.
Seabass are committed to being as sustainable a pressing plant as possible, you can read more about them here.
Morgan Szymanksi
Born in Mexico City in 1979, Morgan was a scholar at the Royal College of Music in London and Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He was the first solo guitarist to be selected by the Young Classical Artist Trust and the first guitarist to be awarded a Junior Fellowship at the RCM, where he completed his Masters with distinction.
Morgan regularly broadcasts live on TV and radio worldwide. He can often be heard on BBC Radio 3 and has recorded to critical acclaim for Sarabande Records and Signum labels.
www.morganszymanski.co.uk | @prisma_mexico
Tommy Perman
Tommy is an artist, designer and musician with an interest in the spaces where these three disciplines meet. He has exhibited widely and released lots of records. His visual work has been projected onto the Sydney Opera House and permanently installed in Edinburgh World Heritage Site historic closes and the National Museum of Scotland.
His recent projects include Ash Grey And The Gull Glides On (2024, Clay Pipe Music) an album with Andrew Wasylyk, Sing The Gloaming (2020, Blackford Hill), a collaborative project by Simon Kirby, Tommy Perman and Rob St John and Positive Interactions (2021), an album made entirely from happy sounds sent to Tommy by 50 friends from all over the world.
www.surfacepressure.net | @surfacepressure