Ian Wellman - Particularly Dangerous Situation (2026)

Ian Wellman's “Particularly Dangerous Situation”, his first release for Elevator Bath and first vinyl LP, is a meditative, at times harrowing, interpretive document of the catastrophic California wildfires of 2025. Wellman's stunningly descriptive field recordings plus his signature tape loop textures and sampled drones combine for a dramatic ten-part narrative that is both frightening and sorrowful in its depiction of calamitous events.

"On January 7, 2025 Southern California experienced their strongest wind event since 2011, gusts reaching upwards of 70-100 mph in some areas. With little rainfall in the past 8 months mixed with a very wet rainy season, there were the makings for extreme fire weather. The days leading up to the event, the local weather service issued a warning I had never heard of before. This warning was called ‘a particularly dangerous situation.’ These winds ultimately resulted in the Palisades and Eaton fires, engulfing 180,000 structures, and taking 24 days to extinguish.
Days before the wind event, I kept hearing about the forthcoming Santa Ana winds, and how this event was going to be powerful. After hearing just how bad it might be (the warning displaying a circle around basically all of upper Southern California) I finally decided to drop everything and document these winds. I had no idea how the events would unravel.
I started the day by going up to Cobb’s Estate Eaton Canyon around 9am, and stayed until 11am. As I was leaving the park, I saw a plume of smoke in the distance. I traveled to Hansen Dam when I received an emergency alert on my phone telling me to leave the area, but people were still at the dam park, so I continued onward. As the winds ebbed and flowed throughout the day, the plume of smoke did not go away in the distance. Only later did I find out the Palisades was on fire.
During the evening, the wind started to pick up again, only this time it was much stronger. I had never felt wind so fierce, it was even hard to walk. With my gear strapped to me, I was determined to capture this moment. Placing geophones on various poles, fences, bus stop shelters, and other objects, I listened in amazement how these structures resonated from the force. I also captured buildings and signs on the street being affected by this violent event. The scent of wildfire was in the air. I got a text from a friend saying 'Eaton Canyon was on fire.' I continued recording as the moon turned red from smoke. I returned home safely but covered in ash. This did turn out to be a very dangerous situation.
It wouldn’t be until the following days and weeks after the winds died down that we began to realize the destruction and deviation upon our community. I am still trying to comprehend the loss months later. Words really can’t express the grief. Endless thanks to the firefighters who worked day and night to gain control of the fires, as well as the community for coming together to help those in need through donating food, money, and goods."
— Ian Wellman

“Particularly Dangerous Situation” was first composed to be part of Halston Bruce and Garek Druss’s ongoing Dronebath series iteration at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles on February 22-23, 2025.

Ian Wellman is an accomplished sound artist and audio professional based in Southern California, with several previous releases on labels such as Ash International, Room40, and Dragon's Eye Recordings.