Despite the lack of updates here, the last year or so has been quite busy for me. Let’s begin with an update on my field recording work. I released only one nature album last year, but it’s a powerful one. Darcy Spidle – Sea Foam Floods the Road is a three-track collection of wind and sea recordings I made in Nova Scotia during Hurricane Lee in September 2023. The album is available for free from my Bandcamp page. It’s also now on Spotify. In October 2023, Bandcamp reviewed this album and included it in their Best Fielding Recordings on Bandcamp column.
In other field recording news, I recently became a contributor to the incredible nature sounds streaming platform Earth.fm. Many of my past recordings are now available there. I also just did a podcast for the site with one of Earth.fm’s founders Melissa Pons. We talked about everything from recording the ocean to method acting. Listen to the full podcast here.
In the last year, I also release a lot of music under the chik white moniker – 6 albums, actually. I won’t list them all here, but some highlights include the chik white/Bill Nace – Off Motion LP. This record took forever to finish! I’m so glad it’s finally available. Bill sold all his copies quickly, but I still have a few left. Last year, I also released an experimental alphorn album called Wind Wound. There’s a long story behind this one, which you can read about in the album liner notes. But basically, I was given a homemade steel alphorn. I played and recorded it every day for months. I then layered all those recordings into two long, dense tracks. A heavy listen! Visit the mighty Full Spectrum Records to purchase or stream the album.
I only performed live a couple of times in 2023, but both concerts were incredibly memorable for me. In March, I played solo on the top floor of a 16th-century tower in Bologna, Italy. A surreal experience! The full concert is available for download from my Bandcamp page. And in June, I premiered Spore Wind, a contemporary classical jaw harp concerto written for me by Juno Award-winning composer Bekah Simms. The performance took place in Toronto, Canada and was presented by Continuum Contemporary Music. Continuum just released the full performance on their Youtube channel.
Finally, I do have a film update. A screenplay I wrote with my longtime partner Seth Smith called Permanent Damage is going into production in April! I can’t say much about it at this point, but keep an eye out for our new feature from my crew in 2025.
Darcy Spidle 