Wooden Flowers Teases Upcoming Album with Single “The Stranger”

Wooden Flowers shares a glimpse into their upcoming album with a new single, “The Stranger,” on Gravitas Recordings on July 12th. The Wooden Flowers project is a collaboration between Michal Menert and Adam Tenenbaum, which blossomed while they worked together on the Dead & Company tour, co-producing and doing sound design as the creative team for Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead.

These two talented artists began working together on more experimental music and wanted an outlet to showcase this different sound. They released the Diffused Light album in 2021, which is a psychedelic ride through their new sound, and have continued to make music together on top of touring with huge acts and the rebirth of Pretty Lights. Michal Menert has his hand in countless projects and collaborations, a true testament to his artistic mind and amazing creativity spanning all genres and styles. This upcoming album is a journey through all his art, and ‘The Stranger’ is the perfect start before we fully dive in.

“The Stranger” opens with classic sampling and an old-school western atmosphere, instantly transporting the listener back in time into another world perfectly represented by the artwork. It slowly teases heavier sound design and more modern electronic elements and builds into an epic experimental blend of electro bass and a laid-back beat. This sounds like something from a movie soundtrack and tells a full story without any words.

Wooden Flowers comments:

“The Stranger begins like an old western film on a distant world, dust dancing upon beams of broken sunlight, as you feel both opportunity and danger sharing the shadows all around.”

Michal Menert and Adam Tenenbaum first met and worked together as the creative team for Mickey Hart, co-producing and doing sound design for a wide variety of sonic explorations and experiments, each taking a turn at creating content for and piloting Mickey’s RAMU system during Dead and Company’s infamous Drums and Space segments. Recognizing a mutual affinity for innovative and rich sounds and music, the two became fast friends and collaborators.

Wooden Flowers “The Stranger” single artwork

Wooden Flowers (and “diffused light” specifically) began as a Thanksgiving day jam in 2018, in the Northern California coastal town of Gualala, where Michal’s High House Studio is nestled within and looks out into a lush redwood forest. The duo began improvising on an assortment of instruments, heavily effected guitars, various keyboards (including a much cherished Mellotron), granular techniques, touch screen, and loads of found sounds. This initial session yielded the record’s opening and closing tracks, “Sun Spot” and “Leaves” respectively. The following session unexpectedly began with an impromptu, pre-lunch, equipment test, and “Everything Is Fine” appeared pretty much from start to finish. That same day Michal captured and expanded on Adam’s guitar arpeggios to begin “The Golden Thread Between.”

Over time, Adam and Michal shaped and augmented the tracks, lastly adding “Chromesthesia”, which began as a short guitar loop and a collection of wild iPad experiments, then fitted with a proper beat. The Wooden Flowers vibe is a colourful, emotional, progressive, psychedelic joy ride.