"Nature Tapes" is a 2017 album by the experimental music project Lemon Demon, led by producer and multi-instrumentalist Neil Cicierega. In stark contrast to Lemon Demon's typically quirky, genre-blending indie pop sound, this album represents a bold foray into the world of ambient and drone music, with a central focus on themes of the natural environment and humanity's impact upon it.
Inspired by growing concerns over climate change, pollution, and the ecological crisis, "Nature Tapes" seeks to immerse the listener in a contemplative, often unsettling sonic representation of the natural world and its fragility. Cicierega has described the album as an attempt to "give voice to the voiceless" - to channel the perspectives of nonhuman living beings and the earth itself through his music.
Tracks like the brooding 22-minute opener "Ebb and Flow" and the ominous soundscape of "Plastic Ocean" use field recordings of wind, water, and wildlife alongside droning, textural synthesizers to craft an enveloping, almost tactile sonic environment. The lyrics, when present, adopt a solemn, resigned tone, with Cicierega voicing concerns over themes like deforestation, resource extraction, and the existential threats facing vulnerable species and ecosystems.
In crafting "Nature Tapes", Cicierega largely abandoned the guitar-based indie rock and quirky electronic elements that defined much of Lemon Demon's earlier work. Instead, he drew from a diverse palette of unconventional instrumentation and recording techniques to achieve the album's immersive, hypnotic quality.
Field recordings gathered by Cicierega form the foundation of many tracks, blended with sustained synthesizer tones, granular textures, and occasional percussive elements. Tracks like "The Forest Speaks" and "Returning to the Soil" make innovative use of contact microphones, hydrophones, and other specialized recording equipment to capture the nuanced sonic character of natural phenomena.
The compositions themselves largely eschew traditional song structures in favor of organically evolving, amorphous soundscapes that unfold at a glacial pace. Melodies and rhythms are muted, with the focus instead on timbre, texture, and the manipulation of sonic space to evoke a profound sense of stillness and contemplation.
Upon its release, "Nature Tapes" was met with widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising Cicierega's bold artistic vision and the album's immersive, emotionally resonant qualities. Many highlighted the record's ability to sonically represent complex environmental issues in a manner that was both poetic and unsettling.
Pitchfork's review, for instance, described the album as "a profound meditation on humanity's fraught relationship with the natural world" that "conjures a profound sense of awe and unease." Similarly, The Wire praised the record's "hypnotic qualities" and "eerie, spectral atmosphere" in service of its conceptual ambitions.
While "Nature Tapes" did not achieve the same level of mainstream popularity as some of Lemon Demon's more accessible indie pop releases, it has been hugely influential within the ambient, drone, and experimental music communities. The album is often cited as a landmark work that expanded the sonic and thematic possibilities of environmentally-conscious music, paving the way for a new generation of artists exploring these themes.
"Nature Tapes" stands as a unique and significant outlier in Lemon Demon's discography, representing a marked departure from Cicierega's more whimsical, genre-blending work. Yet it also demonstrates the artist's versatility and conceptual breadth, as well as his willingness to embrace bold, unconventional artistic statements.
While Cicierega has continued to explore environmental themes in subsequent Lemon Demon releases, he has not returned to the specific sonic palette and meditative approach of "Nature Tapes." The album remains a singular, acclaimed entry in the project's catalog - a compelling, immersive listening experience that solidified Lemon Demon's reputation as a multifaceted and visionary musical force.
