A key inspiration for Ben Copperhead's new album, Wailing Viridescence, can be traced back to his appreciation of old recordings using analog reel to reel tape. Years ago, while on tour in the UK, Copperhead found a book called Tape Music Composition. Cherishing the warming qualities of magnetic sound, he started teaching himself through experimentations in recording techniques. Utilizing a restored 4-track machine, he relished the challenge imposed upon himself by the constraints and parameters of the medium. The results yielded what he believes to be his strongest album to date.
Featuring a collection of songs and several instrumental tracks, Wailing Virides- cence represents Copperhead's deeply personal response to the physical, spiritual, and social injustice. It can be seen, in part, as having been born out of a desire for healing and self-expression under the paradoxical conditions of a need for self-reliance imposed from without and a longing for community coming from within. For Copperhead, this imposition of physical limitations and communal desire gave rise to unexpected inspirations.
The album title was inspired by the concatenation of activities undertaken during the pandemic: the ambient wailing sound he often heard during his walks in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, which he later discovered were vocalizations from a peacock in the park's zoo; readings of myths from India and the story of a peacock who ate a venomous snake, causing the bird's colors to come alive. These serendipitous influences inspired in him a moment of synesthesia: his namesake, the copperhead snake; the iridescence of the peacock; the wailing calls of birds. Copperhead translated this experience of musical colorations through alternate tunings and original arrangements that can be heard in the present album.
Wailing Viridescence represents Ben Copperhead's continued musical growth and transformation refracted through the collective challenges we face in these tumultuous times. The album was co-produced with longtime collaborator cellist and composer Brent Arnold. The legendary Kramer of Shimmy-disc mastered the recordings. A few of Copperhead's instrumentals and past favorite songs were hand-picked by Kramer and also included.
