Reference Points: Emily A. Sprague

Emily A. Sprague, known both for her ambient solo work and as a member of the folk band Florist, embarks on a distinct artistic journey with her latest album, Cyano. This project marks a deliberate synthesis of two previously separate musical expressions: her textural, modular synth-driven compositions and her intimate, melodic songwriting.

The creative process behind Cyano reflects years of experimentation aimed at bridging these styles. Sprague describes the work as an encounter between different facets of her artistry, initially marked by hesitation but eventually coalescing into a new creative chapter. This merging results in music that is neither purely ambient nor solely folk, but a hybrid form featuring modular synthesizers, vocals, and field recordings captured during a winter solstice in rural Iceland.

The album’s concept imagines Cyano as a distant, desolate planet once resembling Earth, now ravaged by ecological and societal collapse. The narrative explores themes of alienation and recovery, framed by a character representing aspects of Sprague herself. This figure navigates transformation and estrangement, seeking empathy in a world where individual thought has been subsumed by collective conformity.

Sprague’s interest in science fiction and historical botanical photography plays a significant role in shaping the album’s atmosphere. Inspired by the cyanotype photographic method pioneered by 19th-century botanist Anna Atkins, Cyano’s title and aesthetic reflect a fascination with the interplay of light, impermanence, and organic forms. The cyanotype process’s simplicity and partial abstraction parallel Sprague’s minimalist approach to composition and sound design.

During a 2019 trip to Iceland with her partner, photographer and filmmaker V Haddad, Sprague gathered sonic and visual materials that inform the album’s textures. The stark contrast of Iceland’s profound darkness and vivid natural phenomena, such as the aurora borealis, influenced her sense of scale and space. Utilizing tools like a handheld Zoom recorder, OP-1 synthesizer, and Monome Norms sampler, she documented spontaneous moments and revisited them throughout the album’s careful assembly.

A key element of Cyano’s soundscape is its emphasis on organic qualities within digital instrumentation. Sprague sought to evoke natural elements—wood, stone, air, and water—through rough-edged, textured tones that suggest rather than imitate these materials. The album is predominantly created with modular synthesizers, a departure from previous works, enabling a balance between improvisation and deliberate melodic structures.

Beyond its sonic identity, Cyano functions as a personal artifact, capturing a period of change in Sprague’s life and artistic evolution. She regards the album as a transmission from a specific time and place, akin to a handwritten letter or a cherished keepsake, embodying vulnerability and the passage of time. This approach aligns with her broader creative philosophy, which values authenticity and the acceptance of imperfection over polished finality.

Collaboration with her partner Haddad remains integral to her process, offering an early sounding board for ideas before public release. With Cyano completed, Sprague expresses a sense of liberation regarding her future work, free from commercial pressures and focused on following her inner voice.

While initial iterations of the project entertained more explicit storytelling or guitar-based arrangements, the final album embraces ambiguity and openness, inviting listeners to engage with its themes on their own terms. Sprague remains open to exploring different facets of her music, suggesting that her evolving practice will continue to blur boundaries between genres and mediums.

Details on Cyano’s exact release date and further promotional plans remain limited, but the album clearly represents a significant step in Emily A. Sprague’s artistic trajectory, one that merges introspective songwriting with immersive electronic soundscapes inspired by natural phenomena and speculative futures.