Kishi Bashi – Winter’s Eve

Limited edition of 250 hand-made lathe-cut records.

 

I was invited by Polar Bears International and my filmmaker friend, Max Lowe, to visit the sub-arctic Churchill, Manitoba, nicknamed the Polar Bear Capital of the World, where I began writing this song.

 

The polar bears hibernate for most of the summer and awaken in the fall to trek across the frozen Hudson Bay to hunt for seals. As apex predators, they keep the seal populations in check, securing a healthy balance of fish and crustacean populations crucial to the survival of the human and the more-than-human inhabitants in the region.

 

Winter’s Eve is about perspective.  While many of us associate the winter with darkness, restraint, and lifelessness, polar bears see the opposite. It is a time of vitality and vigor, and the anticipation of hunting and mating can be seen and felt when visiting them as they gaze upon the unfrozen ocean, waiting for it to freeze.  Unfortunately, due to global warming, the arctic ice is melting, and the winter is setting on later and later is remarkably shorter, causing an incredible strain on the polar bear population.

 

Winter’s Eve” is about embracing the perspective that all living things on this planet are infinitely intertwined within a delicate ecosystem, and climate change will cause catastrophic failures that will ultimately leave this world uninhabitable for our future children.  

 

My fiancé, Dr Kimberly Dill, an environmental philosopher, painted the cover art inspired by my trip to the Arctic.  

 

This song will be a part of a short film about my visit that will premiere at EarthX’s Party for the Planet” event at South By Southwest (SXSW) film festival this year.

 

–Kishi Bashi

 

1 – Winter’s Eve