Elephant Revival’s is the music of connection and the message of Petals, its most intimate album to date, is not how life is about loss, but how much life there is in loss. The album embodies a deepening, as the quintet dives into themes of loss and rebirth, time and memory, love unbound by body or farewell. But the album is not about despair or darkness; it’s a thanksgiving and a prayer for what endures and returns.

A new band member and the introduction of instruments like the pedal steel and the cello into their treasure trove of strings and percussion are just the beginning. The death of a close friend having left its indelible mark on the band, many of the songs on Petals represent what guitarist Daniel Rodriguez calls “an honoring and a coping.” But this is not an album about despair or darkness; it’s a thanksgiving and a prayer for what endures and returns.

“This record has a lot of space and grit—an honoring of silence juxtaposed with some really intense moments,” Rodriguez said. “Recording Petals was all about breaking musical patterns and sonic recipes that we have been using for our previous records. Sam Kassirer helped us hear sounds and arrangements that we might not have heard if left to our own devices. It was really about broadening our tool kit. Petals is an adventurous album, where we went places we’ve never been before, which is exactly what an artist yearns for.”

Petals was produced by Sam Kassirer mixed by Brian Deck and recorded at the Great North Sound Society in Parsonsfield, ME and The Studio at eTown Hall in Boulder.

TRACKS
1) Hello You Who
2) Peace Tonight
3) Petals
4) On and On
5) Raindrops
6) Season Song
7) Furthest Shore
8) Sea Monster
9) When I Fall
10) Home in Your Heart
11) Close as Can Be

Originally published in the May 2016 issue of the MMAC Monthly