Saapato - On Fire Island (2024)

"On Fire Island" is Saapato's introspective journey into the heart of one of New York's most unique and vulnerable landscapes. Born from a residency with the National Park Service on the island, this album diverges from Principato's initial expectations of capturing avian melodies to instead embrace the raw, unyielding forces of wind, waves, and the whispering grasses that define Fire Island's rare and rapidly disappearing ecosystems.

The album is a testament to Principato's encounter with the island's beauty and its precarious future. Amidst the omnipresent hums, whirs, and whooshing of the natural world, "On Fire Island" weaves a narrative of contrast—celebrating the untouched wilderness while lamenting the scars left by human encroachment. From the pollution that threatens the marsh ecosystems to the steady retreat of the shoreline, the album serves as an aural snapshot of a biodiverse jewel on the brink of transformation.

Through a delicate balance of field recordings made on the island and synthesizer compositions crafted by night inside a beachside bungalow, Saapato offers a slow, gentle exploration of this dichotomy. The sonic terrain of "On Fire Island" is an immersive experience that reveals the eerie fragility of our natural world and echoes a plea for conservation. It invites listeners to feel the undercurrents of urgency, to recognize the beauty that surrounds us, and to acknowledge the impact of our actions on the environment. With "On Fire Island," Saapato continues to challenge us to listen more deeply, not just to the music, but to the world around us.