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In the Fall of 2022, Phil Cook found himself living alone in a small home

at the edge of field and forest in North Carolina's Piedmont. For most of

Cook's life he lived near the hearts of the towns he had called home,

near the groan of traffic and hubbub of coffee shops. Such close

quarters helped make the gregarious Cook a prolific collaborator, from

co-founding Megafaun to working with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bon

Iver, Hiss Golden Messenger, and endless others. But Cook's closest

neighbor now was a trailhead, so he went and listened, enraptured first

by the stillness and then by the manifold birds. He began leaving his

windowsill slightly cracked each night, so that the dawn chorus greeted

him. Cook began recording these tangled bird songs, and he slowly

joined them. With the sun finally high, Cook would listen to the day's

recordings and improvise in real time on the instrument that remains the

first and most steadfast love of his musical life, the piano.

When Cook left that cabin after a year, he moved into a home of his own

in Durham, with plenty of space for his two boys to play and for

something he'd never actually owned-a proper piano. Over the next

several months, Cook spent untold hours drilling down on these pieces.

During lessons with the Southern gospel great Chuckey Robinson, the

pianist had challenged Cook to sustain fewer notes, to stop clouding

and crowding his melodies by using the instrument's pedals as

crutches. His music suddenly had more clarity, with the sounds and the

feelings they ferried given more room to function. Cook dug into the

danger and delight, into the idea that we twist our bodies into knots

trying to understand what is best for our hearts.

In April 2024 Cook returned to Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley where he

was raised. His lifelong friend and bandmate, Justin Vernon, had just

finished an overhaul of April Base, the studio compound where Cook

has worked on more than a dozen records during the last 15 years.

Cook asked Vernon to produce Appalachia Borealis as simply as

possible-merely to listen and offer feedback in two extended afternoon

sessions, to talk about the right takes and make sure that they'd

captured the heart. It, of course, got more complicated, as they

experimented with the process. Vernon would add or subtract the bird

songs to Cook's headphones, seeing how they impacted his playing. Or

they would route his notes through a massive reverb chamber, Cook

responding in gossamer improvisations.

Appalachia Borealis is a deeply poignant and personal set of 11 piano

meditations, built with the emotional range of a full and open existence.

Inspired by those windowsill improvisations, it reflects not only the

turmoil and sadness of a fraught time for Cook but also the hope, light,

and joy of looking for the other side. You can sometimes still hear the

birds whose tune and time helped to inspire so many of these songs.

Even when they're not within earshot, their essence remains.