Sally Anne Morgan is an artist and naturalist in the purest senses. Raised on old time and Appalachian folk traditions, Morgan’s artistry embodies the rich life of the communities and natural world she surrounds herself with. Based in Alexander, NC on the edge of Appalachia and the Pisgah National Forest, Sally’s blend of traditional technique and distinctly modern compositional approach are infused with the sounds of her garden, surrounding pastures, forests and mountains.

“I wanted to capture the feeling of walking outside and just encountering organic nature sounds, some with patterns, some with a randomness that also verges on its own kind of pattern,” notes Morgan. “Old time fiddle music is the seed that grew into the part of my brain that makes music, and everything I do somehow seems to come back to that” she concludes. Abstraction in pursuit of free exploration of that which can’t be put into words balancing with an intentional structure of song lies at the album’s core.

Guest synthesis Sean Dunlap (Field Patterns) and hurdy-gurdy player Brian “Geologist” Weitz (Animal Collective) embellish pieces with droning thrums and sonic moss. The fiddles dance gracefully across the bedrock of banjo loops on “Flowers of Sandihar”. The lush “I Saw a Heron” speckles modal piano figures over a violin that sounds out from below, as if played at the bottom of a gorge. Slow guitar arpeggios on “Eye is the First” are met with hiccupping banjo and otherworldly synth tones. Long time collaborator/mixer Joseph Dejarnette’s bass gently underpins Morgan’s reimagining of folk tune “Callahan” into a more dramatic arc.

Second Circle The Horizon is an album built on Morgan’s singular artistic voice as an improviser and composer intertwined with deft intuition. Morgan’s music highlights her bond with nature, and how its beauty and the beauty of artistic creation are interwoven. The album celebrates creation, revels in discovery, and marvels at the complex patterns, intersectional cycles and simple beauty of a creative life intertwined with the natural world.