Taken from Rain Patch, out 10th April 2020. Following on from 2017’s self-titled debut album, Rain Patch continues Rewilding’s exploration of the neglected, dusty spaces found between lo-fi indie-pop, post-rock and film soundtracks. While there are the obvious recent touchstones, such as Fridge, Beak and Olivia Tremor Control, and the less obvious, such as the soundtrack to cult 1980s sci-fi movie Liquid Sky, Rain Patch mines a primitive yet mesmerising vein of instrumental music in which process and result are intimately entwined. The songs on Rain Patch are their own ecosystems, requiring the listener to step inside to fully experience their vivid details.
This ecological analogy extends to the process of the album’s creation. After experiencing profound heartbreak in 2017, Jake McFee relocated to Glacier Bay, Alaska, where much of the album was conceived and recorded. Given the limitations of not being able to transport all the studio equipment he used on previous Rewilding music, he wrote and recorded many of the original ideas using small, portable instruments such as hand percussion, glockenspiel, acoustic guitar and mini Korg synths. The summers were spent at Glacier Bay, while winters were spent back in Philadelphia, where he was able to overdub drums and electric guitars. Between 2017 and 2019, the songs evolved into the forms heard on Rain Patch, as McFee reckoned with both his failed relationship, and his experience of witnessing the pristine wilderness of Glacier Bay being transformed by climate change.