EXTENDED PLAY
Shadow play: Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold in winter hymnal mood.
Fleet Foxes
A Very Lonely Solstice
(YOUTUBE/STREAMING SERVICES)
“I’m not the season I’m in” sings Robin Pecknold towards the end of this solo acoustic set, recorded in December 2020 in a Brooklyn church and livestreamed to those stuck at home. While Pecknold excels at such archaic, elemental wisdom, the seasons seem, conversely, critical to his deeply grounded folk aesthetic. The same month this set was recorded, Fleet Foxes released a career-high LP, Shore, exactly on the autumnal equinox. For karmic balance, then, film of this show and its accompanying soundtrack manifest digitally on the winter solstice; the day of the longest shadows making a perfect backdrop to Pecknold’s shy virtuosity.