Kira McSpice - The Compartmentalization of Decay (2024) [Hi-Res]

Gothic folk singer/songwriter Kira McSpice's desire to grow a garden led to a fortuitous exploration of her own trauma in upcoming LP "The Compartmentalization of Decay" (CODIT), out April 12.

When she stumbled upon a video detailing how maple trees are tapped for syrup, McSpice was struck by a comment in which someone inquired whether the process harms the tree. She discovered that much like the mechanisms humans use while protecting themselves from traumatic experiences, maple trees, forever scarred by mankind's greed, survive by forming protective layers around their wounds.

"I was raped when I was 19 by someone that I loved, and I continued to be with that person for years after. As soon as I learned about this method of how the trees seal the wall, it made me think of that immediately," says McSpice. Like the maple tree, McSpice found herself using the album CODIT as a way to compartmentalize her trauma and process it. "I wanted to get vinyl made and be able to hold it outside of myself. Be able to hold this compartmentalized trauma as if it was a sliver of a tree," she explains.

Through the maple tree, she revisits her own healing process, from the self-preserving disassociation following the initial harm in "Knife Like a Spile," to the dawning of finding inner strength to move forward in "To Lead Me Home." With the assistance of longtime collaborators Tyler Skolgund and Will Ponturo (Wiles), McSpice crafts lush modal soundscapes out of glass harp, corrugaphone, musical saw, cello, synths, and trombone to evoke elements of a haunted forest, with intrusive distorted guitar from Ponturo protruding at key moments to signal the tree's desolation.

With its conceptual focus and sonic grandeur, CODIT is McSpice's most direct work yet. Establishing different roles to each instrument (most of which performed by McSpice herself) to represent each of the story's characters creates an enthralling narrative that draws you in. The album serves as a reminder that even in the darkest moments, there is beauty waiting to be uncovered in the defiant spirit of perseverance.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Kira McSpice - A Prayer for the Sealing of the 4th Wall (2:45)
1.02 - Kira McSpice - Knife like a Spile (4:35)
1.03 - Kira McSpice - Dark and Endless Fog (4:13)
1.04 - Kira McSpice - Get You Out (3:37)
1.05 - Kira McSpice - Blackfly (4:44)
1.06 - Kira McSpice - Supplication of the Maple (2:28)
1.07 - Kira McSpice - Photosynthesis (2:22)
1.08 - Kira McSpice - Sugaring (3:57)
1.09 - Kira McSpice - Wherever I Go (3:29)
1.10 - Kira McSpice - Evaporate (4:28)
1.11 - Kira McSpice - To Lead Me Home (4:50)
1.12 - Kira McSpice - The 4th Wall Has Been Sealed (2:26)