THE pandemic posed problems for everyone, particularly musicians who were used to rehearsing together indoors. Formed during lockdown in 2021, North Carolina based cosmic improv trio Setting got around these concerns by taking things into the open air – namely drummer/percussionist Joe Westerlund’s backyard. “We only met outside at first, under the carport at my house,” he tells Uncut. “We were set up kind of far apart from each other and there were some rhythmic things that started happening because of the distance.”
It wasn’t an entirely pastoral setting – the band had to, was eventually recorded in a proper studio, there’s an unhurried, natural feel to its four expansive compositions that flow like a river, or whisper like the wind through the trees. “I’ve got recordings on my phone of those early jams and there’s definitely a spaciousness that comes through,” says the band’s Nathan Bowles.
