Matt Rösner & Seaworthy - Snowmelt (2021)

Snowmelt is a new record by Australian artists Seaworthy (aka Cameron Webb) and Matt Rösner, the long awaited follow up from their 2010 collaboration Two Lakes (12k1062).

Snowmelt asks the question, “What does climate change sound like?” Recorded during two field trips to Kunama Namadgi (Mount Kosciuszko), the record compares and contrasts the physical shifts in the region’s flora, fauna and landscapes brought upon by the changes in season that occur at higher altitudes. The Australian alpine regions are increasingly stressed by the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events add to pressure mounting on the delicate ecosystems in this region from physical disturbance and pollution, feral animals, bush fires, and droughts.

Focusing on the incidental sounds of an environment in transition, Snowmelt merges the sounds of nature with minimal but considered instrumentation. Melting ice and snow feeding mountain streams, marshlands buzzing with insects, distant bird calls, windswept grasslands and whistling rock outcrops. Guitars quietly recorded in an icy cabin located inside the Kosciuszko National Park. Incidental sounds processed and looped with a mind to subtle textural shifts and interplay between field recordings and instrumentation.

Snowmelt sits geographically distant from the pair’s previous release, Two Lakes, recorded alongside coastal wetlands and woodlands on the NSW south coast, but is an equally powerful document of place. Where there was a huddled warmth to much of these field and instrumental recordings, there is an exposure to the alpine recordings of Snowmelt that while not necessarily bleak, does prompt reflection on the uncertainties of a changing environment’s sound as well as physicality.

Matt Rösner continues to explore the natural world to inspire his work based out of remote Western Australia. His most recent release being No Lasting Form (Room40). Webb’s output as Seaworthy has been sparse in recent years as he continues to pursue a career in environmental research, focusing on urban wetlands and their ecosystems. This marks the first substantial release since Wood, Winter, Hollow, a collaboration with Taylor Deupree in 2013.