V by Bell-Ringer
These songs were composed and recorded between spring 2025 and winter 2026. They are about nature, especially trees, and how we so often imagine the natural world as something dangerous, something to be feared. We see signs in nature: messages, omens, reflections of our inner turmoil.
In medieval literature and folklore, a burning or withered tree was often an apocalyptic warning, marking the boundary between death and rebirth, or the onset of moral decay. At times, it was the voice of God. Nature twisted into a commandment, a justification for those with power to act with divine impunity.
Still, the woods endure beyond what is spoken or done in their name.
Field recordings on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 11 were taken in Ireland in the summer of 2025. Everything else was recorded from a window in Brooklyn, NY.
Tracklist
Credits
All songs written and recorded by J. Kropa
