Written by Shea Roney

Room in Heaven, the new label out of New Jersey, recently shared their digital debut release First Winter Day, a compilation of fourteen ambient, folk, primitive guitar, and otherwise unclassifiable tunes for Christmas and the frigid months ahead. Founded by Chris Grillo (Cricket), Room in Heaven is a DIY collective, beginning as a way to curate the often-hidden sounds made by friends and fellow travelers within this beautiful and limitless world.

First Winter Day Contains contributions from The Howard Hughes Suite, Devon Flaherty, Cla-ras, Ethan W. Olsen, Bug Bus Piano, derek white,
Shonepine, Anthony Pasquarosa, Cricket Embry, Eleanora, Armbruster
Friends of the Road, Linden Pomeroy and Liam Grant.

Artists also shared statements about their individual tracks;

Jeremy Ferris (Cla-ra’s) on “Petal (acoustic)“: “This song is built on the skeleton of Bach’s Pastorale in F Major, which supposedly is meant to evoke the droning bagpipes (zampogna) of an Italian shepherd at Christmastime. I imagine the shepherd playing by their campfire during the season’s first snow, hoping that the wild dogs stay away.”

Derek White on “xmas set for cricket radio_12 17 25“: “This piece was constructed using my favorite parts from my favorite Christmas songs, I edited the songs down to 2 second samples of sections that had sentimental value to me, the exact moments that trigger my memories of Christmas. I repurposed those samples into various overlapping loops and made many of them unrecognizable. I wanted a rhythmic synergy, almost hypnotic. Like several scratched records looped together but also communicating in a Phillip Jeck-like fashion. You can hear micro fragments of Wham, McCartney, Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bowie & Bing, The Drifters, Elvis, Beach Boys, Carpenters, Yoko Ono, Vince Giaraldi, perhaps others.”

Devon Flaherty on “Rufus the Goofus”: “Here is a track for the holiday compilation, a really dumb song I learned from a local privately pressed 45 by Kelly Sears of Siler City, NC. He was a contemporary of Charlie Poole and they both learned to play banjo from the same person.”

Bug Bus Piano on “White Snow Green Needles”: “Made using custom noise device, simple sine keyboard, MIDI piano loop. Mixed as one ice clear tone. Piercing sound signal. Bug Bus Piano would like to share a wintertime memory: 2013(?), WA. Driving through the pass, looking up at massive dark green pine trees covered on their tops in dark white snow along the road. The size, the distance, the amount, the colors- all comes together to make something so serious and solemn, it’s beyond anything else in that moment. Everything else seems insignificant.”

Anthony Pasquarosa on “Pastorale di Natale (Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle)”: “Here is my track, it should be labeled Pastorale di Natale (Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle) like that. It is a version of the most famous Italian Christmas Carol (Tu Scendi…)) which is traditionally played on bagpipes, ciaramella, and sung. The “Pastorale” is often reflecting the manor in which Christmas songs are performed, and since there is an intro and outro to it, that is why I labeled it that way. Lastly the most famous 78 version of Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle is actually labeled as Pastorale di Natale (Pasquale Feis), so its a nod to that…. Anyways, sorry for the long winded explanation. Oh, also I sampled the sizzle from the Chicken Cutlets I pulled out of the oven and looped it under the whole recording.”

Cricket Embry on “Martinmas Time”: “Recorded late one evening in the lonesome, echoey upstairs bathroom of my former workplace when I was supposed to be taking out the recycling.”

Eleanora on “Ceremony of Carols”: “This is an improv piece inspired by Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols Harp Interlude. The carols are usually performed around Christmas time and were written by Britten in 1942 while traveling back to England from America, inspired by a book of medieval poems. The harp interlude from the carols is one of my favorite solo pieces to play and I wanted to improvise an ambient piece based on it.”

Album artwork by Jeremy Ferris

You can download First Winter Day for free via Room in Heaven’s Bandcamp. You can also listen to the whole compilation on YouTube.