When he isn’t releasing music from his Dinner Set Gang project or recording much of Milwaukee’s music scene at Silver City Studios, Josh Evert—who you might also know from his years in The Fatty Acids and Jaill, and from being the co-founder/organizer of Arte Para Todos—is out gathering both inspiration and instrumentation from nature.
Evert’s 2015 residency at Homestead National Monument resulted in the symphony of field recordings on Not Uninhabited. He followed it with Uncle Sam’s Club For The Agoraphobic, an EP he recorded during a stint with ACRE in Steuben, Wisconsin in 2016. Following a two-week residency at Denali National Park in 2017, Evert released more naturalist recordings in the form of his Braided River EP he put out in early 2018.
Late last week, Evert released “Another Deity,” a new song from his forthcoming solo album. Evert says that record, entitled 7 Islands, is “based on field recordings from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, as well as Seven Islands State Park and other surrounding parks.” There’s no formal release date at this point. In fact, the only place you’re able to order 7 Islands at the moment is through an IndieGoGo campaign that’s trying to raise funds to allow Evert to embark on his most ambitious artist-in-residency opportunity yet.
Evert is seeking to raise a total of $8,000 to cover the residency’s cost, as well as recording equipment, outerwear, and other travel-related expenses necessary to go on a two-week artist residency on a research vessel in the Arctic Circle, where he plans to record things he experiences in the unconventional setting for use in another release.
“I’ll make field recordings and collect audio samples of objects and wildlife in the environment, focusing heavily on the sounds of ice,” Evert says on his IndieGoGo page. “I’ll then weave them into experimental compositions that thematically revolve around climate change.”
In addition to getting the 7 Islands digital album (available at the $10 level), there are other perks available to donors, such as signed Not Uninhabited and 7 Islands cassettes, autographed 7 Islands CDs and screening prints, and even a postcard from the North Pole. There are also limited packages that offer contributors things like audio stems, an executive producer credit, a song produced by Evert, as well as a custom album he’ll create for one lucky donor. You can learn more about the campaign and donate to it HERE.