You find yourself on a trail.
The earth under your foot is hard and scorned. Flattened grass surrounds, dry and brittle. The familiar feeling of rain is long forgotten. Trees surround as far as your eye can see, yet they seem withdrawn into themselves.
You stop by a eucalyptus tree, its leaves worn the colour of old rosemary and gold coins. You stop for a while, admiring its beauty. You know it’s withheld the tear of time, as it will continue to. The earth remembers the days of rain forlorn, your step kicking up dust as you find your way.
As you wander through the forest, you become acutely aware of its song. The silence was not empty, it was tactful. As you continue your hike, the bass bursts onto the scene, akin to ‘Smoke Signals’ hanging around in the air, relaying their own message.
It comes time to ‘Pick Your Poison’ left or right? You stop to think, weighing up your decision. Acacia lines the right, Melaleuca spans the left, the haze of colour mills over your eyesight like the meeting point of a golden sunrise and its reflection on the face of the ocean.
You hear the classic call of a kookaburra and immediately think ‘What Did You Call Me’? A sound you’ve grown up listening to, but never as loud and clear as in this setting. You look around and see its beauty, its feathers carrying canopies of cream and chestnut. You see its beauty and grace. One of the spirits of the forest in the flesh.
You continue on your journey. Constantly ‘Reaching For More’. You overhear a ‘Conversation In Three’ up ahead and decide to take the other path, you are hit with “An Unexplainable Pain”. It jolts up your left leg, and stops at your knee, the pain is thick and hangs over you. You’re unsure if you can continue, but even to turn back now it’s further than finishing the trail. You push on.
You look around and notice the forest is healing, the track in your headphones skips back once again you’re surrounded by buttery, bold basslines, like vines hanging from tree to tree, basslines that are smooth and silky, yet slinky.You let them take you away and exhale with the forest.
Words by Tommy Boutros