The result of week long artist in residence program on the Scottish Isle of Eigg hosted by Lost Map Records; Grandaddy legend Jason Lytle enlisted the fellow company of artistic heavyweights Arthur King to create the visceral visual album Changing Landscapes (Isle of Eigg). While in the works as an installation set for a Los Angeles pop-up gallery, we proudly present the first look at the living, breathing visual document itself in its entirety. The result is something completely immersive. A place where found and fabricated ambience meet and mesh together like hands held together in congress, like the way the fog rests gently and mysteriously upon the rolling highland hills to the wavy expanses of surrounding waters. Witness a world like you have never experienced before where nature and the craft of humankind intersect in a transportive, concerted union of a multi-sensory spectacle for the spirit.

The Isle of Eigg is first observed as the iris dissolves into visuals of the lush terrain, grandiose rocks, seaport swells, grazing sheep and the whir of wind turbines. The ebb and flow of tides can be heard and felt, birds chirp and soar overhead as the ripples and ocean roar dovetails into oscillating audio patterns of electro-organic hybrids of sound. Field recordings blend with the cinematic atmospheric production, as the camera work traverses the continuum from handheld amateur auteurship to the astounding cinematographic prowess of nascent documentarians. The rolling landscape of tall grass, floral sprawl, mossy boulders, trees, churches and the buzz of bumblebees give rise to pensive piano touched movements that explore ancient graveyards with archaic headstones. The evocative audio soundtracks sunrises, sunsets, the paths of insects, to trickling brooks and solar sequences that stir senses of beauty and awe in the unbridled majesty of this remote island. Listen and look as the natural cycles of waves crashing upon rocks are heard and viewed like a monumental event. Juxtaposed with the violent clamor is the peaceful low tides of the Scottish Inner Hebrides sea. Sound bites can be heard from locals as we witness boats both active and inactive idling at the shore, populated by plucky chickens along with the gurgle and glug from a microphone cast into the glistening waters. Rustic cabins can be seen as the blend of audio collages becomes intertwined with electronic beat pulses that punctuate an ever shifting, sprawling dramatic soundscape. Arthur King and the gang spend time among the sheepish flock who feed from the fruitful offerings of the isle's rich vegetation as you set forth along a one lane road through villages, pastures, valleys, bramble, leafy branches and briar to witness new facets of this wondrous realm.

Moving images of the natural can be seen cast upon houses, as Arthur King and Lytle provide a privy viewing of their own synthesis at work that bridges the compendium of modern instrumentation with the audio/visual captures of their spirit enriching surroundings. Treated special effects give way to the untouched images of sensational clusters of stones, sands and the sprawling deep green that touches much of the mystic isle. We watch as cows go about their day along the rocky shores, witnessing the act of capturing the incoming expanses of magnificent sea faring currents. Hikes through forests can be heard, seen and felt in a celestial state of bliss that feels as if you have accidently stumbled through the side door entrance into the dimension of heaven. The aural fusion of steps, animal habitation, winds and the stirring tranquility of sea is mixed with the sensational sequencing of synths that are reminiscent of a lost work from the repertoire of Johnny Jewel or Angelo Badalementi respectively. The film/album/art gift from John Schlue, Alexander Falk, Aaron Farley, Aaron Espinoza, Peter Walker and Jason Lytle draws to a close with sweeping landscape vistas and a rustic rock formation as the consciousness becomes consumed with the indefatigable and ineffable aura of Eigg.

Arthur King was generous in providing some words on the bridging of sounds and visions and the intrinsic allure of Eigg:

Island life is unique. Removed from whatever mainland you might be near, there’s an immediate camaraderie with your fellow human. If push comes to shove you’re stuck in a way, together. Eigg took this concept of differentiation one step further and gathered all the inhabitants to basically purchase the island and therefore have the ability to make their own rules, unencumbered by mainland mentality.

When we five artist/scientist types landed, we put our lenses and microphones on Eigg. We recorded everything and anything we found. And if we weren’t recording outwardly, we were recording inwardly. We soaked it in. We slept in it. We marinated alongside the island itself. We entered.

In the end, we came out changed people. We learned something about Eigg and about ourselves, for our immersive process leaves nothing behind. We learned about the wind. The plants. The people. The roads. The ocean. The animals. The list goes on down to the most finite and up to the least finite. We learned about our own boundaries and capabilities. Each of us are islands that we collectively own. We are separated, together.

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Arthur King’s Changing Landscapes (Isle of Eigg) is available now via AKP Recordings.