Foot Ox - Topanga Canyon Foot Ox

Topanga Canyon began when Cullen was invited to spend a week recording at the canyon home Germaine Dunes shares with Buck Meek and their dog, Ringo. With the session already on the calendar, Cullen wrote the album over the course of a single spring, bringing a new collection of songs to California to record mostly live alongside members of Kisser, AJJ, Pigeon Pit, iji, Lake, and Foot Ox's Oregon lineup. Engineered by Dunes and Carly Bond, the sessions unfolded across the house and its front porch, allowing birds, airplanes, wind, conversation, and the natural sound of the canyon to become part of the recordings. What began as a Foot Ox album gradually grew into a deeply collaborative document of a particular place, a particular group of friends, and a brief moment built around trust, intuition, and chance.

Foot Ox is an experimental folk band from Portland, Oregon, originally formed by songwriter Teague Cullen in Tempe, Arizona, in 2007. More than a fixed lineup, Foot Ox has always been a revolving door of friends and collaborators, with each recording taking shape around the people who happen to be in the room. Inspired by dreams and old films, the songs drift through love, grief, humor, landscapes, and hope using abstract imagery and subtle, unconventional arrangements. Whether stripped down to intimate folk songs or swelling in to a full band Foot Ox has always embraced contrast, allowing each record to become a document of the friendships that made it possible.