The Howard Hughs Suite & Geir Sundstøl – Afterglow

Portuguese label The Slow Music Movement rounded up 13 songs by artists (some already Petal Motel faves, some soon to be Petal Motel faves) to make songs that explore their respective folk roots but simultaneously look ahead and incorporate fresh, musical innovations to carve out the Future of Folk.

Longtime Petal Motel favorite The Howard Hughes Suite teamed up with Geir Sundstøl to create this illuminated first single from the compilation. tHHS’s thoughtful guitalele picking pairs seamlessly with Sundstøl’s expansive, atmospheric pedal steel playing to ensure listeners that folk indeed has a bright and promising future.

The full compilation will be released on April 15th and also features Jeffrey Silverstein, Andrew Tuttle, Tres Tigres Tristes, Alula Down and more.

Says The Slow Music Movement of the compilation:

I contacted a few of the artists that had lit my folk flame to see what they had to say? Artists that know their roots, but who are keeping their eyes on the road ahead and the world of possibility they now enjoy. Shortly after, from home studios in spare rooms and internet enabled remote collaborations; wildly processed instruments from hazy late night jam sessions, digitally mutated acapellas and 13th century songs covered in an age that the long dead and sadly forgotten writer could never have imagined, started to drift into my inbox from Brazil, Scotland, Australia, England, Spain, Norway, Ireland and the USA.

Some artists erred on the side of tradition with just minor modern embellishments; some made paper airplanes from the rule book; most had feet firmly planted in old and new worlds. With the exception of Peter Thompson, who I knew from my Barcelona days & whose track is the only tune not recorded especially for this project, all communication was digital and the fact that no natural resources were used to wrap up this wonderful collection of songs into 20th century formats, and which will only ever exist on servers, hard drives of the old school music buyers and live shows of the artists, is a testament to the open minds of all involved.

Is an evolutionary leap the key to folk’s survival? Time, the whims of the coronavirus gods, the folk community’s response to today’s existential stresses, adaptation to changing media consumption habits, marketing decisions and ultimately, people’s decisions on what style of music suits them best, will decide.

Get Future Folk on Bandcamp.

Geir Sundstøl: Pedal Steel, Mini Moog, ambient textures and atmospheres.
The Howard Hughes Suite: Guitalele, ambient textures and atmospheres.
Produced by The Howard Hughes Suite & Geir Sundstøl.
Mixed by G. Sundstøl at Studio Intim, Oslo, Norway.
Written by R. Caswell and G. Sundstøl.
Mastered by Ian Hawgood
Artwork by Harriet Clare