See You In The Morning Light is a chronical of grief. Scott Ferreter lost his father to stomach cancer in 2012. The musician (previously of Comfort Twin, Cove) then spent the next four years making his upcoming album See You In The Morning Light with twenty-five other musicians and friends, calling the project Deep Pools. Ferreter says the process was a “rite of passage,” which took so long because “I had to grow and grieve with each phase of its creation. At each new step, the project couldn’t move forward until I had fully felt what I needed to feel, and in that way, it is both a document of my grieving process and the driving force behind it.”
Indeed, the feeling of growth and grief is woven into the album along with the atmospheric “ambient air” that provides the ephemeral backbone of the songs. The recordings making up the “ambient air” were made at St. Paul’s Episcopalian Church at midnight on a full moon. “I had seven or so musicians to try to recreate the ‘air inside of which each song would be born’ instead of trying to play the song. Those tracks ended up being like the spirit of the rest of the recording process, creating the feeling to guide the project.”
This ambiance is especially visible in the first half of the album where some of the most intense parts of Ferreter’s grief seem to be concentrated. It opens with ‘What Once Flowed’ a lovely, rain-drenched track that seems both sad and sweet at the same time. Though the entire album benefits from a close listen through headphones, this song is especially helped the experience, which makes the listener feel like they are inside on a rainy day.
The following song, ‘Dad’s Chest’ starts off with a somewhat jarring talking section, but the rest of the track is a beautifully melodic tribute to feeling safe in a parent’s embrace. It is reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s Meddle, with a dark rainy undertone that calls back the Vangelis’ soundtrack for Blade Runner. Ferreter says he “allowed chills and tears to be the guiding forces of the record-making process. If something gave me chills or brought me to tears, I’d stop adding or subtracting from it.” This is especially noticeable in ‘Dad’s Chest Pt. II’ and ‘World (Expanding)’ when he can be heard sobbing in full-throated grief.
While ‘Dad’s Chest Pt. II’ and ‘World (Expanding)’ expose Ferreter’s grief, ‘Slugs’ shows the listener a dark, harsh slice of anger. It is both a strange twisting drug trip of a song (“Come on peyote, you must get sick if you want to get holy”) and a moment of doubt (“But now that this is what I’m doing should I ditch it or just finish?”) sung through gritted teeth.
The record ends with rain and a sense of rejuvenation in the aptly named song ‘What Peace.’ See You In The Morning Light is a beautiful cycle of grief and emotions, atmospheric and brave. It is well worth the listen.
Ferreter will be holding two album release shows, which he calls Grief Releases. The first will be in San Francisco, December 9th, hosted by the You’re Going To Die Movement, a community which focuses on opening dialogues about death and dying. It will be held at the Noe Valley Ministries on 1021 Sanchez St, San Francisco, at 7pm. Tickets are $15, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. The second show will be at St. Paul’s Episcopalian Church (1430 J St, Sacramento) in Sacramento, where much of the album was recorded. The event will be on December 13th at 7 pm. Ticket prices are TBD, but again no one will be turned away for lack of funds. “Both will have dancers, a full band, multimedia magic, and some surprises. Both are aiming for tears of laughter and grief in equal parts,” says Ferreter.
Not able to make the release shows? Though Ferreter says he wants to focus on getting CDs in peoples’ hands as “this album is best listened to beginning-to-end,” See You In The Morning Light will be released through FeedBands exclusively before he sends it off to iTunes and Spotify. Learn more on Deep Pools’ website here.