Many will say that nature is healing. The sensation of grass bristles in between your toes. The fragrance of pine needles. The sound of a crackling campfire. For multifaceted musician Phil Cook–it is the echoes of birdsong. 

In 2022, Cook enveloped himself in the foundations of nature deep in the forests of Piedmont, North Carolina. He became isolated from his peers and the rest of the world, accompanied only by his thoughts and the comfort of his piano. However, Phil took solace in and became inspired by the birdsong outside his windowsill, leading to the foundations of what would eventually become 'Appalachia Borealis.' Using the birdsongs as a basis of harmonization, Cook used recordings of them each morning as an accompaniment when writing music for the piano, eventually leading to integrating birdsongs throughout the entire record itself. 

As the project evolved and grew more significant than he could ever imagine, Phil brought in longtime friend and fellow musician Justin Vernon, known under the alias Bon Iver. Cook entrusted Vernon to preserve the vulnerability and rawness of the record, welcoming him into the world of discovery and self-reflection. It quickly became a cathartic process for the two, as they recorded the tracks in the hometown they grew up together in Wisconsin, creating a sure journey of full-circle nostalgia and healing. 

Phil Cook reinvents himself with Appalachia Borealis–deviating from his work in groups like DeYarmond Edison and collaborations with artists like The Japanese House, Travis Scott, and Bon Iver. Cook’s debut album sounds and reads like a love letter, one that prioritizes compassion, healing, unpredictability, and a devotion to his chosen instrument, the piano, which serves as the record's backbone. Like the unexpected nature in terms of how the record came to be, the journey of the songs themselves embraces that unpredictability, cycling through Cook’s varied emotions that stem from his real-life tribulations and losses.

As the record’s release is set for this upcoming March on the 21st, Cook shares with fans a single that shares the same name as the record’s title, Appalachia Borealis. "It's my favorite song I’ve written, written in a dreadfully torrential downpour on a lonely and difficult day,” Cook writes; “I don’t believe I could’ve written this song in my 20s or 30s, and I certainly couldn’t have written it without experiencing some real losses in my life and the hole that remains in the aftermath. It heals me to play this song.” From the first mesmerizing piano key of the song, the listener becomes absorbed by Cook’s entrancing melody. It is a track without any words or lyrics, but it speaks a language of universal truth and personal growth, something everyone can comprehend. Even between the piano keys, lying in the silence, there are small echoes and crackles, a perfectly imperfect notion of Cook’s creative process, and a method of demonstrating the uncertainty he is so trying to embrace.

The accompanying music video is a blissful, almost found footage-like, swirling montage encapsulating the aspects of the natural world that provide healing–specifically featuring birds now and then, a recurring muse and musical instrument throughout the entire record. As if he is almost revealing parts of himself slowly to us, there are also clips of Cook existing within these landscapes, and interacting with the environment with the same curiosity and light that is found at the core of the project.  

However, as the album is completed and set for release, it also brings on the start of a new emotional journey for Cook–a tour, the act of sharing his love of music and discovery with the rest of the world. Each tour date is a stepping stone as he explores new terrains, moving from his time in the wilderness and the studio back to concert stages and venues. It will be a completely new, vulnerable experience for Cook, as he embarks across the country solo, channeling his time back in Piedmont. The birdsong. The piano. The pine needles. The crackling of a fire. The windowsill.