The Peace of Wild Things is the opening piece of Russ McRee’s new eight-track instrumental work, inspired by Wendell Berry’s poem of the same name.

The music begins with nature as its point of reference. McRee describes the piece through the image of an endless horizon on a moonlit, star-filled night, translating that scene into a spacious arrangement for guitar, synthesiser, bass and drums.

The guitar carries the melodic centre while the other instruments create distance around it, leaving pauses and open spaces in which the music can settle. There is calm here, but also a gentle longing that keeps the piece moving beyond simple stillness.

The eace of Wild Things introduces an idea that will unfold across the releases that follow. Each of the eight compositions takes its title and inspiration from an image or phrase found within Berry’s poem, allowing McRee to approach the same natural landscape from different musical perspectives.