JON COLLIN “From a Petrified Forest” (Garden Portal)


Imagine yourself deep in Sweden’s Tyresta National Park, surrounded by nothing but nature, no humans, no noise pollution, no anything except the undisturbed quietude of the Earth in progress. Now imagine that you’ve hiked out there with nothing but an acoustic guitar and some form of recording device (let’s say tape player – we’re a cassette tape site after all) and, after letting the landscape sink in (like really sink in: into your body, your bones, your blood, your brain), you pull the guitar out of its case and let your fingers drift up and down the fretboard. The tune resembles the roaming you’ve already done to get to this point: even, contemplative, internal. Wandering fingers mimic wandering feet.

You stay within yourself so as not to disturb your environs.

Did you imagine all that? Good. Because that’s essentially what Jon Collin did, down to the very last detail, resulting in From a Petrified Forest. He wandered into Tyresta, got away from it all, and plucked his guitar until the sounds merged with the wild outdoors, becoming sort of an ambient soundtrack to a nature documentary. This is all good stuff, as Collin really captures the quiet majesty and beauty of the landscape. It’s perfect music for getting out of the rush of life and into the processes of an alfresco unwinding. Sink into it, and observe.




--Ryan