A Debut Album About Finding Light
Avian Invasion has always told us he landed on this planet. Since touching down in the Pacific Northwest, the producer has made progressive house and trance his signature, and he admits those sounds are “the most compatible with my programming.” With Into the Trees, his first full-length album, he gives himself room to do something singles and EPs never allowed. He slows down, explores and tells a bigger story.
“Anything that can transform sound into bodies in motion is alchemy really. It’s downright sorcery,” he says. “So I’m definitely not leaving dance music. This album, however, has moments of pause.”
A forest of sound, natural and concrete
The album is named after the landscape he landed in. The Pacific Northwest has mountains, oceans, deserts and old-growth rainforest, and Avian Invasion is quick to point out that beauty doesn’t stop at the edge of the woods.
“Going into the trees, getting lost in the woods doesn’t just mean going into the Hoh Rainforest. There are also gigantic trees made of concrete and steel. You know, we have Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane. You can find beauty in the dense urban environments around this area as well, if you’re looking, and that’s the important thing. You have to be looking for beauty.”
That idea runs through all 12 tracks. “I managed to land on this planet at a time when an awful lot of people seem to be struggling to find beauty in anything,” he says. “I think if we all train ourselves to look for that light, we might just be able to find it.”
Two steps away from trance
Into the Trees stays mostly in what he calls “progressive birdhouse,” but this time the songs get space to breathe. Organic house, deep house and melodic techno all show up, “all sort of just two steps away from trance and progressive.”
“The theme of the whole album is exploration, so why not explore some new sounds? Maybe I’ll find a path that I wanna keep going down. Who knows?”
He wrote the record the way a composer writes a symphony. “My six-song EP was kind of like a short story or a novella. It doesn’t really give you the ability to go deep down any given road. I approached this as though it was a multi-movement work, more like a symphony than just a collection of singles that sounded good.”
The journey, track by track
The album opens with “Lost,” a track about the nerves that come with going somewhere new. “Exploration can be a little scary, but most of the time it is absolutely worth it.” Later in the album, “Let’s Go” answers it, the moment when you find the courage to go and invite someone along with you. “Bring On the World” takes that one step further. “It’s one thing to gin up the courage to jump off that cliff and dive into the water. It’s another to actually have fun doing it.”
The title track sits third and works as the album’s manifesto. Its opening line sets the tone: “Will you come with me into the dark, holding up the light for all to see?” In his words, “We have to go into unknown places if we are going to make this world better. It’s about healing both internally and externally.”
Several tracks come straight from the landscape. He started writing “Moonlight Rendezvous” on the night the aurora was visible over Seattle. “There’s just something about sitting in a cool breeze out on a porch, sipping a cup of wine, and the best thing on TV is not having the TV on.” “A Breath in the Wind” started during a Puget Sound thunderstorm. “It was as if the world was singing to all of us. The world was putting on a show. So how could I not write down what I was seeing and hearing?”
The album’s message is clearest on “We Are One” and “Together.” “Everywhere I look right now, I see people actively sowing division and fear and mistrust and judgment,” he says. “When I look at all of you people on this planet, you all look the same. You want to be happy. You want your family to be happy. You want the world to be at peace.” On “Together,” the lyrics are deliberately short: “We could be what we need to be together. We could see all there is to see together. We could have everything we need together.”
Written for a friend
Four tracks on Into the Trees are dedicated to a close friend Avian Invasion lost during the COVID pandemic, after isolation and pain left him in a very dark place.
“Cloudcracker” is built around the music his friend loved most. “Those deep, driving, hypnotic melodic techno tracks. Not the ones that are center stage, ‘Look at me, I’m the performer.’ More the ones that pull you into a vibe and just let you float for a while.”
“Precipice” says what he wishes he could have told him. “If I could say anything to him, it would be, ‘Hold on. Don’t let go.’ I know that so many people feel like they’re hanging onto a ledge by their very fingertips, especially right now. It’s important to remember that you are not alone. You are never alone.”
“Kaleidoscope,” a softer organic house track, comes from the renewed appreciation he felt after the loss. “Even though I’m mostly black and white, this world is full of such brilliant color and vibrancy and life.”
The album closes with “Sunset at Kalaloch,” named after a stretch of old-growth rainforest and sandy beach on the Washington coast where the two of them used to camp with friends. On their last trip, he photographed his friend in low sun through campfire smoke. “It was like stage lights right onto his face, and he just looked so blissful.” The photo has since gone missing, so the track has to stand in for it. “I hope that with this song we can always remember him with that look on his face, at peace in and among the trees in Western Washington.”
Made by hand
Avian Invasion made Into the Trees himself. He sang every part, played every instrument and designed most of the sounds. “There is zero AI involved, unless you count Avian Invasion.”
Mastering came from his friend Hausman, an engineer, producer and songwriter. “He took something that I was happy with and shaped it into a sound that brought me to tears the first time I heard it. I cannot thank Hausman enough for making this first album of mine sound so gorgeous.”
Where to start
New to Avian Invasion? He’s clear about which track to play first. “Start with the title track, ‘Into the Trees,’ because it is basically an invitation to come and join me on my journey into the unknown. Every time that I’ve tested this on dance floors on this planet, it has absolutely gotten people to move.” Into the Trees is out now. In Avian Invasion’s words, it “now belongs to the people of Earth.” Listen to Into the Trees and follow Avian Invasion on Instagram. If anything in this story affects you, you don’t have to deal with it alone. In the UK, Samaritans are available any time on 116 123.
Released with MN2S Label Services
Into the Trees is released through MN2S Label Services, and we’re proud to help this record find its way to the people of Earth. A debut album is a big moment for any artist. It takes years of writing, recording and rewriting before anyone hears a note, and Avian Invasion did nearly all of that himself. Our job is to make sure that work reaches the listeners, dance floors and communities it was made for.
We first introduced Bird One and the Avian Invasion project in our Artist Spotlight: Avian Invasion. That piece told the story of his reinvention from a singer-songwriter playing geek conventions and sci-fi events into a full sci-fi progressive house act, inspired by Daft Punk and Above & Beyond. It also covered his live shows, which run from DJ sets to full productions with keytar, live vocals, a custom beak microphone and suit lighting that venue lighting designers can control in real time. We looked at tracks like “You Are Not Alone,” “Choose Your Weapon” and “Pilot Light,” and at the inclusive community he has built around the project.
At the time, Bird One told us new music was in development. Into the Trees is what he was working on, and it’s the biggest story he has told so far. If you enjoyed the spotlight, this album is the next chapter.