Songs for the Mist Forest

Tommy

  • Electronic Sound

    By Martin James for Electronic Sound.

    Childhood friends’ beautiful ode to nature

    This is the second album from Scottish artist Tommy Perman and Mexican classical guitarist Morgan Szymanski, the follow-up to 2022’s ‘Music For The Moon And The Trees’. ‘Songs For The Mist Forest is an expanded version of their soundtrack to the documentary film ‘El Dragón De Los Bosques De Niebla’ (‘The Dragon Of The Mist Forest ), which the duo created in 2023.

    The documentary explores an environmental crisis created by overdevelopment, through the ecocide destroying the forests that are home to abronias. These beautiful, small reptiles are native to the region and are the “dragons” of the film’s title.

    The album blends Szymanski’s guitar playing and subtle choral electronica with field recordings of the Valle de Bravo, a town west of Mexico City on Lake Avándaro and bordered by wooded mountains, where the film is set. Consequently, the sounds of numerous endangered species such as fireflies, birds, crickets and abronias are captured and fused with this selection of sorrowful yet stunning vignettes.

    At times reminiscent of David Sylvian’s ‘Secrets Of The Beehive’ in the delicate Latin guitar work, there is a sense of languid heat and disquieting calm throughout. The single ‘Esperanza’ employs distant church bells as a call to public awareness, leading into gently plucked and echoed guitars, taking us on a journey that becomes increasingly distorted, before insistent rolling beats build a fresh sense of urgency.

    ‘Dance Of The Fireflies’ captures the skittering beats of the insect’s wings in flight, as piped synths sing a medley melody over expressive acoustic guitar picking.

    The ambience of the forest heat haze is extended further on the theme of ‘La Rosa De Los Custro Vientos’. This track again uses pipes, but this time over a repeated, building refrain that speaks of impending doom. It’s an effect that’s further employed on ‘Rodrigo’s River’, which merges the sound of flowing water, birdsong and haunting guitar, that inclines towards an evocation of a calm being destroyed, while ‘The Garden Of Contemplation’ places you right back into the beauty of the threatened habitat.

    ‘Songs For The Mist Forest’ is a graceful album that lulls you into a false sense of serenity, while continually reminding you of the essence of disappearing that sits at the heart of the compositions.

  • Songlines

    By Paul Bowler for Songlines

    Szymanski’s pensive classical expressive guitar lines are offset by Perman’s electronics trickery.

    The music created by childhood friends Morgan Szymanski and Tommy Perman serves as a reflection of their natural surroundings. While their debut, Music for the Moon and the Trees, was rooted in the sounds enveloping the Scottish woodland house in which it was recorded, this latest effort takes inspiration from Szymanski’s ranch in the mist forests of Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Capturing a series of field recordings of local wildlife and habitat – much of it endangered by the current over-development of the forests –Szymanski’s pensive classical expressive guitar lines are offset by Perman’s electronics trickery. Some of its outward-looking folk music straddles a similar melding of the form with jazz expressionism as John Martyn, notably on the echoplex-style guitar lines of ‘Esperanza’. Other tracks see the guitars offset with offbeat percussion (‘La Rosa de los Cuatro Vientos’) or electronic beats and ambient effects (‘Birds of Paradise’ and ‘Harmonic Rain’). Final track ‘Canción del Adiós’ adds upbeat vocals for a hopeful denouement.

  • Tidens Larm

    From tidenslarm.se

    This is music as supple, expansive, and fragile as the nature it seeks to wrap in a protective veil — music that, with respectful tenderness, reflects the overwhelming beauty of the natural world, set in stark contrast to its fateful vulnerability.

    Songs for the Mist Forest marks the second collaboration between childhood friends Morgan Szymanski and Tommy Perman. On their first project, Music for the Moon and the Trees (2022), the duo explored the Scottish countryside. This time, their inspiration stems from the mist-covered woodlands surrounding Valle de Bravo, in central Mexico, where Szymanski owns a ranch.

    The origin of Songs for the Mist Forest lies in the soundtrack Szymanski and Perman created for El Dragón de los Bosques de Niebla, a documentary that both addresses the long-standing exploitation of Valle de Bravo and pays tribute to the region’s unique reptiles, the abronias. The documentary’s thematic essence carries through to the album, which, through its eleven hymn-like compositions, also seeks to highlight the issue of environmental degradation and illuminate the ever-escalating consequences of the ecological crisis.

    Field recordings of local fauna blend seamlessly and with striking effectiveness with Szymanski’s classical, delicate guitar playing, alongside organically rhythmic sounds drawn from guava and zapote trees (among many others). The endangered species that are allowed to voice themselves here — birds, fireflies, crickets, and most notably the aforementioned reptiles — infuse the album with constant vitality. This is music that lives, and in harmony with Perman’s nuanced production, a sense of atmospheric melancholy and majestic unity is evoked.

    This is music as supple, expansive, and fragile as the nature it seeks to wrap in a protective veil — music that, with respectful tenderness, reflects the overwhelming beauty of the natural world, set in stark contrast to its fateful vulnerability.

  • The Skinny

    By Tallah Brash for The Skinny

    Szymanski’s classical guitar playing and Perman’s electronics are tenderly matched with field recordings from the Valle de Bravo forests in a beautiful call to action.

    Following on from their debut collaborative record in 2022, Music for the Moon and Trees, childhood friends Tommy Perman and Morgan Szymanski, from Scotland and Mexico respectively, return for round two. Trees are once again a focal point as the pair release Songs for the Mist Forest via Blackford Hill (18 Jul), a collection of 11 songs born out of the pair’s soundtrack work on the documentary film El Dragón de los Bosques de Niebla (The Dragon of the Mist Forest). Once again there’s a romantic feel to their music, although this time with an underlying sadness, the record serving as a stark reminder that the forests of Valle de Bravo, Mexico, where Szymanski lives, are under threat – Szymanski’s classical guitar playing and Perman’s electronics are tenderly matched with field recordings from the Valle de Bravo forests in a beautiful call to action.

  • Harmonic Rain on Soundart Radio

    Harmonic Rain was played on the The Four Points Are Thus Beheld show on Soundart Radio on 25/3/25. Listen back here.

  • Harmonic Rain on Camp Radio

    Harmonic Rain was played on the Liminal Noise show on Camp Radio on 25/3/25/. Listen back here.