Saapato is the recording project of Philadelphia‘s Brendan Principato, an ambient musician interested in what he describes as “textural soundscape creation and sound bath performance.” The style essentially amounts to songs with therapeutic value, sounds rooted in the organic and intended to provide spaces of peace and relaxation, be it to calm the listener or else help ground them in the immediate present.
Following on from the third Saapato record, Becomes Clear, which was released last year on Glass Orchard Records, Principato has returned with the Bird Sanctuary EP. As the title suggests, the release is centred on his experiences birding, the songs composed from the back of his car at the Forsythe Bird Sanctuary in Galloway, New Jersey.
Opener ‘Flock of Snow Geese Taking Flight’ introduces just how effective such a practice can be. There’s a dawning clarity that makes for a striking and moving piece, with a sense of wonder and melancholy intermingling to great effect. The immediacy of its creative process draws the listener into the scene, creating an aural ecosystem that envelops and soothes.
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Each track represents a different animal or action, and it becomes a rewarding experience to revisit the sounds and compare how Saapato renders each species in a sonic form. If the snow geese taking flight are given a light, quietly joyous mood, then ‘Ducks’ gives its subject a more grounded one, punctuated with a certain erratic quality as a series of moving parts coalesce into the wider whole of a flock. ‘Swan Through a Telescope’ is far starker and more dramatic, the sound hovering between regal beauty and pervasive loneliness, and offering a tunnel-vision focus that conveys a sense of detachment and distance.
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Bird Sanctuary EP is out now and available from the Saapato Bandcamp page.