SPRING BLOOMS
TERRILL MAST
RELEASED: 8.01.2025
An album about springtime released in the height of summer? Of all Terrill Mast's qualities on which one can firmly rely, perhaps his ability to confound and defy expectations sits at the very top of the list. Spring Blooms is the third installment in a series of four albums centered around each of the four seasons. The majority of the album is based on elegant piano arrangements with minimal percussion and beautifully subtle synth layers that give the listener a sense of space that is uncommon for this artist. Not until this release has an album of his felt so wide open, where all the layers of sound have room to really breathe. Spring Blooms shows us that Mast has learned exactly what a track needs, like a painter who knows precisely when a piece is finished. And as the final track gently sends us floating off into the horizon, we are left with a sense of surrender. Despite its predominantly melancholy tone, Spring Blooms is an album with a keen sense of wonder for life's smallest details. Things that normally go unnoticed, like an insect landing gracefully on a flower, the feeling of moss underneath your bare feet, or the way vapor condenses into tiny dewdrops on a leaf. It is those small details and moments of beauty that make this album such a meaningful listen.
"I decided initially to make this my most ambient album, still sticking with more minimal and lo-fi sounds, just keeping things nice and easy. I held close to that concept until it no longer suited my needs for using music as a form of journaling and self-therapy. Of course I wanted to release this during the season it was written for, but things just didn't pan out that way. Spring of 2025 was very much a transitional period for me. The biggest thing was moving away from my hometown for the first time in ten years, and saying goodbye to a lot of folks that I would likely never see again. During that time I was doing a lot of packing and compartmentalizing of my life, and it forced me to revisit my past in many ways that challenged my heart. 'Memory Pile' is very much about that struggle; grieving for both what's happened and what is inevitably going to transpire. Some of these songs have taken over a year to produce while others, like 'Orchid', I knocked out in one take at my kitchen table, but they all capture where I'm at right now. As with most of my albums, I kept working on it right up until it's release, even writing entirely new parts just hours before submitting it. Those last-minute changes are the ones I'm the most proud of, like the second-half of 'A Lamp For All Mankind' which blossomed out of thin air only five days before my deadline. Overall, I wouldn't say that it's a happy album, but it is hopeful, and it was healing for me to make."
