Noah Crist Creates Magic With ‘Welcome to Loch Raven’

Hailing from Cockeysville, United States, Noah Crist is a breathtaking musician whose art speaks for the artist himself. His passion and love reflect very well in his work, luring listeners into the depths of his tracks. As an artist, it is very important that their art leaves an impact on the person who is experiencing it, and Noah’s musical art does exactly that, leaving a long-lasting impact. After feeling burnt out from his previous night stakes project, Noah Crist decided to loosen up a bit, and that resulted in the latest release ‘Welcome to Loch Raven’, the song we are here to talk about.

“Drown in the musical beauty of ‘Welcome to Loch Raven’ by Noah Crist, a sonic masterpiece.”

Field-recorded completely in the Loch Raven Reservoir, ‘Welcome to Loch Raven’ by Noah Crist transports you to the place itself with its rawness and unfiltered authenticity. The immersive melodies create a serene sonic tapestry that leaves you mesmerized by the sense of calm the song instills in your heart. It is very evident that the artist was very laid-back and had a lot of fun while recording this song, and that joy contagiously spreads to the audience as well. Apart from perfectly composed melodies, the sounds of nature in the background further elevate the experience. Dive into this beautiful sonic ocean and experience the magic.

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We also got a chance to converse with Noah. Here's a candid interview with him!

1 - You mentioned that field recording changed the way you see yourself as an artist. What did you discover about your own creativity through this process that you hadn’t realized before?

I mainly found out that the process of recording the world around me without the expectation of perfection was really freeing. It simultaneously gives me more to work with while also forcing me to work around something new and unpredictable. This process raised a couple of questions that I had to consider, such as how to write a compelling piece that didn’t overwhelm the recording and how to find ways to make the piece feel like it fits into the environment itself. It was a new way of thinking about my music that I found really enjoyable.

2 - When you’re standing in a natural environment with a recorder, how do you decide what is worth capturing? Are you looking for specific sounds, or do you allow the environment to surprise you?

Honestly? I’m not really looking for anything. I had done a couple of trial runs before doing the real recording for ‘Welcome to Loch Raven’, and I found it was more fun to just see what happens and let nature surprise me than try to hunt down anything specific. It really freed up the creative process, and I think it contributed to the immersion that I achieved in the track.

3 - Your recording at Loch Raven Reservoir seems to blur the line between music and the sounds of everyday life. Do you consider this project a composition, a soundscape, or something entirely different?

I consider it to be a composition with the Reservoir being sort of a co-composer. Half of what makes the track so impactful is the recording, and all I did in that process was set up the equipment, right? The Reservoir and those who call it home did all the work on that part. My real job was writing a piano score that fits into the material given to me, sort of like a film composer.

4 - How important is silence to you in this kind of music? Can the absence of sound sometimes be as meaningful as the sounds you choose to record?

Silence is everything in this style of music. How a composer uses silence to let the music breathe and allow the listener to reflect has the potential to completely change the meaning of a piece. The really cool thing about this is that during these brief moments of silence, the meaning develops in a way that is entirely controlled by the listener. Many composers will scoff at this idea and say that the meaning of a piece should be completely guided by themselves, not the listener, and the listener should think of the composer’s intent as scripture. Personally, I think this misses the point. Music is an incredibly personal thing (for both the writer and the listener), and the way a person interacts with it is entirely up to them. The interpretation one person has for a song can be completely different from another’s, and this is inherently out of the control of anyone outside of the listener. This is especially true for instrumental tracks, where there are no lyrics to guide the listener to a certain conclusion. Silence, in my opinion, gives listeners even more of a chance to interpret a piece for themselves.

5 - Was there a particular sound or moment during the Loch Raven recordings that unexpectedly became one of your favorite parts of the project?

On ‘Welcome to Loch Raven’, the answer is definitely the mourning doves you can hear throughout the recording. It’s so subtle, but when your ears catch it, you are drawn in even further. I think it appeals to a certain level of nostalgia, especially for those who grew up listening to them like myself. Out of the whole album coming out in October? There is a moment in the final track where I caught two kids running around and playing. It was completely unscripted, and it brings so much more life to the track. I think that was just the perfect moment, and it adds a ridiculous amount of depth to not just the final track, but the album as a whole. I don’t want to spoil too much, but it’s definitely an amazing and beautiful moment.

6 - You’ve spoken about stepping away from the highly curated nature of the music industry. What do you think modern music sometimes loses when everything is polished, edited, and perfected?

I think having music be highly curated is practical for a lot of genres, especially those that have an easier time getting radio airtime. However, in the search for perfection, you can lose a lot of authenticity, start seriously second-guessing your skills, and quickly burn out. I spent a lot of time on my last album hunting for a perfect sound, and while I think I came pretty close, there are definitely moments that could be improved. The process of making sure everything was exactly how it needed to be for such a massive project led to a lot of burnout for me in February of this year when it finally released. I’m not saying I didn’t love the project and am not incredibly proud of how it turned out, but doing all of that on top of being a full-time teacher is incredibly taxing. Upon looking back on my original comments, I think I need to rephrase my goal here. I don’t think I’m fully stepping away from curating and nitpicking my work, as the creation of good music requires that to some level (i.e. a good composition, clean mixes, well-mastered tracks). I want to find a way to allow for flexibility in my creation process, so that it feels less like the end product is set in stone. In other words, I want to allow for my projects to grow and change as they progress so I’m not chasing something that’s unrealistic.

7 - Since you recorded everything yourself, how did being both the musician and the recording engineer affect the way you approached the project? Did one role ever conflict with the other?

Looking back on it, the roles never really conflicted with each other; more so, they created guidelines for each other. When I was recording, I wanted to make sure the audio was clear enough to not sound distorted, so I made sure to place my mics in a spot that was blocked by the wind. I also wanted to make sure it was loud enough to hear minute details, but not too loud as to be unworkable. On the other hand, the piano score needed to have enough substance to it to be present, but not so extravagant that it obscures the beauty happening in the recording. I think I did a pretty good job finding that mix.

8 - If listeners could experience this project in exactly the environment where it was recorded, what would you want them to notice or feel that they might miss when listening at home?

Two things: visuals and the context of the weather that day. While listening to it is a wonderful time and has the potential to make you feel like you’re really there, it objectively will never match actually being there. I recorded this in early July, and Baltimore was in the middle of a heatwave at the time, with a high of 102°F just days earlier. The day I went out, the temp had dropped to the mid-80s to low 90s because it had rained the evening before, and I did my recordings in the morning/early afternoon. It was still hot, but nowhere near what it had been, and that morning there was so much activity around me. There were a lot more birds, squirrels were after each other, and there were more people out because it was cooler. I think if I had gone out at any other time in July, I wouldn’t have been able to capture so much, and the slight reprieve from the extreme heat made the recording session that much more special.

9 - You’re now considering expanding this into a full album with recordings from the Loch Raven Bridge and Merryman’s Trail. How do you envision these different locations connecting to form one larger musical story?

First off, I’m not considering it anymore. The album is on its way to being complete! Right now, I’m working on mixing recordings with the other piano scores, and I have some more audio I want to record, but I’d say I’m 60% of the way to sending it off for mastering. You can look forward to that releasing sometime in early October!

In terms of the different locations, they connect in a way that doesn’t tell a strict story, but gives the listener a chance to experience the different facets of the Loch Raven Reservoir. I think the recording in ‘Welcome to Loch Raven’ shows the beauty of the woods surrounding the Reservoir, the tracks including audio from the trail speak to the great hiking in the area, other parts of the album feature the water itself, and the Loch Raven Bridge track hints at the human effect on the normally peaceful nature of the area. Overall, it’s less of a story and more of a musical snapshot of the Reservoir itself.

10 - If you could go back to the beginning of this project with everything you know now, what would you do differently, and what would you absolutely keep the same?

I definitely wouldn’t need to do all those trial runs with my equipment! This project had a pretty big learning curve in terms of field recording techniques, and even now I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface in terms of what’s possible. I don’t think I would change much about the project itself, mainly my approach to the recordings themselves as my skills with the equipment have improved. I would have liked to get to the dam itself to do a recording, but I feel like the album is going to be complete without it. If the album does well, maybe I’ll do a future recording and release it as part of a ‘deluxe edition’.

Test the melody here:

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