Forest for the Trees - Forest for the Trees (1997)

"Planet Unknown" by Forest for the Trees


Bob Ludwig is one of the most sought after mastering engineers in the business. He's skilled and prolific and chances are he's mastered or remastered one of your favorite albums. Ludwig was recruited to remaster the entirety of Queen's album catalog for their recent deluxe edition re-releases. Ludwig has mastered everything from classical to classic rock from indie to the most mainstream pop. On the extremities of his mastering work lies a strange album by the collaborative project Forest for the Trees.

The membership of the band Forest for the Trees is difficult to pin down. The band was malleable and made common use of that quality. The only cornerstone the band had was hip hop and alternative rock producer Karl Stephenson. I imagine that the makeup of the band was Stephenson (who wrote, arranged, and played most of the music) alongside any friends who wanted to bang around and record with him.

Stephenson began pulling together the band's debut in the early nineties with an aim at releasing it around 1994 (about the same time he produced Beck's Mellow Gold). However, his obsessing over the intricacies of the compositions led Stephenson to a mental breakdown, leaving Forest for the Trees unreleased until 1997.

The eponymous album is an odd hybridization of styles very similar to his approach in producing Mellow Gold (without the novelty). The album is lightly psychedelic more jarring for its juxtaposition of genres (hip hop next to grunge next to celtic music next field recordings) than the minutia of the production Stephenson labored over. The content of the album explores textbook transcendentalism and carries with it fleeting visions of a global community.

The delayed release of Forest for the Trees's debut from Dreamworks Records failed to find an audience. 1999 held the last release from the band: The Sound of Wet Paint EP, loose tracks left over from previous sessions. Surprisingly, b-side "Primordial Soup", the "Dream" dance remix, and especially "The Sound of Music" would turn out to be some of the Forest's most notable songs. Dreaworks dropped Stephenson form their label and, now defunct, are believed to still hold one unreleased Forest for the Trees album.

Here is Forest for the Trees's complete discography:

Dream (1997 single)
Forest for the Trees
Planet Unknown (1997 single)
The Sound of Wet Paint (1999 EP)

"Dream" by Forest for the Trees


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

Pass the Headphones!!