Forest Veil Releases New EP 'Caldera'

Portland artist & singer-songwriter Forest Veil has released her brand new EP Caldera featuring lead single You're Supposed To Know. It is now available on all streaming platforms via Spirit House Records.

Caldera is Forest Veil's fifth release with Spirit House Records. It took shape during an Artist-in-Residency at Caldera Arts, an arts and environmental immersion program for under-resourced youth and practicing artists in the mountains of Sisters, Oregon.

Caldera is a time-and-place based EP centered in natural soundscapes. Instead of starting the songwriting process from a more self-focused, egoic place, the beginnings of each song were born from foundscapes, collected by Forest Veil, at the week-long residency. Forest Veil also chose to decenter the I-perspective by leaving lyrics out completely or writing without the use of pronouns (other than we) in order to represent the collective "we consciousness".

Caldera's songs are responsive and inspired by each unique capture of nature, space, or place. This process created a uniquely diverse set of songs, spanning various genres, with environmental elements as the continuous thread. Throughout the EP, Forest Veil plays a variety of instruments including guitar, mbira, wooden flute, and MIDI instruments. After the residency, Forest Veil collaborated with producer Leif Burton to arrange and produce the compositions. Burton added his own personal touch of downtempo and Hip-Hop elements to the mix.

Caldera is a time based art and an archived capture of the place, moment, and song in front of us. It is a reminder that time and space are always a part of the composition as well as an open invitation for humans and artists to interact, in harmony, with the natural world around us.

About Forest Veil:

Forest Veil is the solo work of Portland, OR producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Monica Metzler. Following the echoes of her elusive muse, Forest Veil creates hypnotic psych-folk that maps the emotional terrain of humanity and its place in the cosmos. Melding a voice that sounds like smokey quartz with psychedelic guitar riffs and enigmatic lyricism, Forest Veil's sound evokes a haunting nostalgia for other worlds. Though she primarily writes on her own, Forest Veil records and performs with others. An avid guitarist for over 25 years, Forest Veil's music showcases virtuosic guitar shredding and dynamic musicality. Forest Veil's music has been placed in ads, movies, and TV shows.

Metzler previously released music under Moniker. Her first work as Forest Veil came in the form of her 2016 release, Zoolights. This album was released on Spirit House Records, which she co-founded with musician Johnanna Warren, in the same year. She currently plays drums for the Portland all-femme band, Pool Boys.

In addition to her musical pursuits, Metzler is a Program Director at a youth music non-profit and an experiential arts family therapist. Metzler cites Adrienne Lenker (Big Thief), Sufjan Stevens, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, and Nick Drake as songwriting influences.