It’s been eight years since ambient musician John Zorko last released an album under his Falling You collective, but he’s finally returned with a new full-length inspired by the myths of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
John reached out to Anji Lum in 2023 to contribute lyrics and vocals to a track for the project. As Anji explained in Chillin’ with Lovespirals Episode 101, she initially struggled with how to approach the material before ultimately embracing the story of Philomena. The story of a woman transformed into a caged nightingale, using birdsong to achieve personal liberation and vindication, seemed fitting for the album’s theme. Her blend of original lyrics—sung in a soothing lower register—with spoken passages drawn from Sir Samuel Garth’s 1717 English translation of Ovid– bridges the modern and the archaic.
That fusion is further expanded through Ryan Lum’s contemporary production work, which introduces an anachronistic edge via subtle formant shifts and textural manipulation. In addition to recording and producing Anji’s vocals for “Philomena,” Ryan also contributed a bluesy electric guitar lead, and added additional percussion—marking his first true hands-on collaboration with the evolving Falling You collective.
