Metsänpeitto by El Hardwick

During their residency at TUO TUO in June 2024, El Hardwick did not necessarily plan to record any songs, however “the land rang with messages” which they couldn’t help but channel:

Land which used to be swamps, drained for agricultural use.
Symphonies of June mosquitoes; singing an elegy for a land that no longer was.
Stories of the wrongness of covering wells from sight; hidden from source.
The never-setting midsummer sun.
Swallows nesting in the roof; the sound of their eggs cracking open on the solstice.
Moss covered monoliths in the forest.
El’s co-resident, Winter, singing an ancient keening song on the solstice,
and the prehistoric cries of the cranes calling in response.

One day El wandered into the forest alone. As they journeyed amongst the tall, spacious pines and birches, they felt certain of which direction they had entered. Yet suddenly they were surrounded by dense bracken, with no clear way out, and no indication of how they got in. Thrashing their arms through branches and thorns, they eventually found themselves in the neighbour’s plot, far away from the house. After returning along the road, they learned from Kaitlyn & Joni about Metsänpeitto: the belief that the forest can hide those who enter it. Those “covered by forest” no longer recognise their terrain, even on familiar grounds. The phenomenon either makes them invisible, or disguises them as part of nature, such as a rock.

Tracklist

1.	Metsänpeitto	4:30

Credits

released June 20, 2025

El Hardwick - Vocals, harmonium, guitar, synth, field recordings and production.
Memory Play - Double bass.
Mixed by Memory Play.
Mastering by Joni Judén at TUO TUO.
Artwork by El Hardwick.

Thank you to Shireen & Winter for helping edit the lyrics.

License