FORESTS, the debut album from 24th and Haven, is out now.

The album is a collection of 10 songs that explore the lush ambient textures created from bowed vibraphone and also features a string quartet. Bicycles, the first song on the album, was created almost entirely of bowed vibraphone and includes a very special collaboration with Alex Somers (Sigur Rós, Julianna Barwick), who mixed the song.

The songs of Forests are about adventure—that sense of adventure that filled our days as children and left us totally lost in the moment. This album is a tribute to that adventure and a reminder to never stop running towards it… to embrace each beautiful moment in front of us.

In the course of recording, I discovered a 25-year-old field guide that I made back when I was a kid for a school science project. The guide included perfectly preserved leaves that I collected from forests around the Northeastern United States. Many of my childhood days were spent exploring the forest behind our house, climbing trees, riding bikes along country roads, hiking mountains, catching fireflies at night in the backyard, and visiting the beautiful weeping willow tree down by the creek. For me, these preserved leaves were a symbol and reminder of all of those adventure-filled days as a kid—days that will live on forever inside me. The leaf visuals above feature some of my favorite leaves from the field guide. The music video for Bicycles (posted below) also features one of the leaves, which the man finds in the treasure box as he’s walking along the shore.

Thank you for listening!

Ryan Repash, May 2024