I first read A Wizard of Earthsea in 2018 or 2019 after it was recommended by a friend. I had never read anything by Ursula K. LeGuin before and I was surprised at how quickly I became immersed in the world of Earthsea. It was quickly followed by The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore. The first time I read the original trilogy, I didn't follow it with the latter three books. It took me a few more years to discover how the world of Earthsea and the characters became so much deeper and richer in the subsequent books Tehanu, Tales From Earthsea, and The Other Wind (the original three books were published between 1968-72 and the latter three between 1990-2001.)

Since then, I have read and re-read those six books over and over, finding new worlds and meaning within them each time. At some point, I became fascinated with the character of the Master Patterner, one of the nine masters at the school of wizardry on the island of Roke. While the other masters of Roke each teach a specific and more definable discipline of magic (weatherworking, changing, summoning, knowing and learning the true names of things, herbalism and healing, etc), the magic of the Patterner is something more mysterious. The Patterner lives apart from the other masters in the Immanent Grove and his craft is deeply tied to the natural world and the balance of life. The song Patterner feels like the centerpiece of the album to me, so it made sense to have that be the album title as well.

A lot has been written about how The Earthsea books were the first fantasy novels to center a person of color as the main character, centering female characters, and crafting stories that didn't depend on violence/militarism. For me, Ursula K. Le Guin's voice and these stories speak to something beyond words. They have affected my life and my creativity in ways no other works have and I hope to reflect some of that magic in these songs.

Le Guin's voice is needed now more than ever as our society embraces state violence and authoritarianism and we continue to disregard the clear signs of climate collapse. This quote from the author made the rounds a lot around the time of the election of 2024 and it seems will remain relevant for some time -

'Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom – poets, visionaries – realists of a larger reality.'

This music is best enjoyed while reading the Earthsea books.

Cempasúchil is for Sara Jean.
Creatures is for Lola, Oscar, and Scout.

Thank you for listening.

Stefan Beck: guitars, lap steel, keyboards
Sara Beck: cello

Mastering by Sean Conrad
Artwork by Stefan and Sean