Phil Cook Announces Birdsong-Inspired Solo Piano Album ‘Appalachia Borealis’

Phil Cook will release a birdsong-inspired album, Appalachia Borealis, on March 21 through Sylvan Esso's Psychic Hotline label. Cook shared the title track off the record produced by his longtime friend and collaborator Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

Cook began generating what would become Appalachia Borealis in fall 2022 while living alone in a secluded area of North Carolina’s Piedmont region during a period of “personal turmoil.” The sounds of birds caught Cook’s attention and he improvised alongside and recorded several of their songs, some of which made it to the pending album. After a return to Durham, North Carolina, Cook was taught by renowned gospel keyboardist Chuckey Robinson, helping to inform his compositional and performance approach.

The album, which consists of 10 originals and a cover of Gillian Welch's “I Made A Lovers Prayer,” was completed during sessions held at Vernon’s April Base recording facility located in Wisconsin’s Chippewa Valley close to where the pair grew up together. In 1998 while high school classmates in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vernon and Cook formed Mount Vernon with Phil’s brother Brad Cook and Joe Westerlund, later changing the band’s name to DeYarmond Edison.

In the mid-2000s, Vernon went on to form Bon Iver, while the Cook brothers and Westerland formed the short-lived, psych-folk band Megafaun. Phil Cook has also performed with many others during his career, including Mavis Staples, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Hiss Golden Messenger, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Waxahatchee and more.

While recording at April Base, Cook played piano as the birdsongs he recorded were played through headphones. Regarding the title track, which features the loon, Cook stated:

“‘Appalachia Borealis’ is my favorite song I’ve written, written in a dreadfully torrential downpour on a particularly lonely and difficult day. A recording of loons calling on a lake at night enters on the last stanza, the moods exactly complementing one another respectfully. 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.”

Phil Cook will tour in support of the album beginning in March. Cook confirmed a batch of West Coast solo dates in May.

Watch the video for “Appalachia Borealisis” and stream a the previously shared “I Made A Lovers Prayer” cover, below:

Appalachia Borealis Tracklist

1. Rise
2. Running
3. Two Hands In My Pocket
4. Wescott
5. Thrush Song
6. I Made A Lovers Prayer
7. Dawn Birds
8. Buffalo
9. Reliever
10. Ambassador Cathedral
11. Appalachia Borealis