The process for the creation of My Skin Craves Soil, a song cycle about experiencing nature within the confines of the city, was fairly simple; co-creators Ralph Gorodetsky and Weba Garretson simply ventured out into Garretson’s back yard in Echo Park, observed things, and then transformed those observations into music. “In 2011 Ralph came over with a beautiful guitar piece, and I pulled out a poem about my cat being eaten by a coyote,” recalls Garretson of the genesis of the piece. “It just took off from there.” A unique 18 song cycle about the urban wilderness where skunks, possum, hawks, and cats live side by side, My Skin Craves Soil takes audiences on a journey that’s at once panoramic and tightly focused; some songs burrow deep down into the soil itself – the piece includes a delicate love song to a slug -- while others flit through the sky like a hummingbird. My Skin Craves Soil combines elements of classical, new music, modern harmony, and pop song, and is at once dissonant and unabashedly lyrical. It is, above all else, an immersive theater piece that incorporates video of flora and fauna of Garretson’s backyard shot by Mark Wheaton, projected drawings by musician Joe Baiza, and projections by Frances Garretson. Conceived for the black box theater, the song cycle has also been captured in a recording that conjures the delicacy and power of nature in all its facets. Produced by Mark Wheaton, My Skin Craves Soil is part and parcel of the current greening of the arts, and is reflective of a general eco-consciousness that’s seeping into society. “People are shifting their focus, and this shift is fostering what could be described as a lifestyle movement,” say Garretson, who’s an avid gardener and serious cook. “Sustainable farming, urban gardening, and the growing awareness of permaculture are all about engaging with wildlife within tiny wedges of city. The fragility of those natural places reflects back on our own fragility, and our hope is that this piece will inspire people to see their environment in a different way. What may be dismissed as a w**d is in fact part of an eco-system, and it has a place in the manicured existence we strive for. There has to be a blend of those edges.” Gorodetsky’s feeling for a pantheistic view of nature has different roots, and he traces it back to an experience he had in 1992. “I was in Topeka, Kansas and I met a Potowatomi Indian who took me to the reservation where I was exposed to Native American philosophy and ceremony. I feel very fortunate that I was able to have that experience.” The Native America belief that every living thing has a purpose and a soul is one of the guiding premises of “What Must the Hummingbird See?”which premiered in March, 2014, at Automata, an alternative space in Los Angeles and is the basis of the CD My Skin Craves Soil. Garretson and Gorodetsky began working together in 1993 when their mutual friend, drummer Danny Frankel, brought Gorodetsky to one of Garretson’s rehearsals. As it happened, Garretson’s then collaborator, Steve Stewart, was unable to make an upcoming show, and Gorodetsky stepped in, learned every note of Garretson’s music, and performed the show with her two weeks later. Shortly after meeting they realized that they ignited something in each other in terms of songwriting, and an enduring partnership was born. “Ralph was game,” Garretson recalls, “and what I was doing at the time was kind of unhinged in a way that made room for his contribution. So, we started writing nice little songs then pushing them out of shape.” There’s no set formula as to how they produce songs together; each of them writes both lyrics and music, and each song is configured differently in terms of who contributes what. “There’s a push pull because we’re so different,” says Gorodetsky. “I’m a little rough around the edges and Weba is more sophisticated, and that sweet-sour thing allows us to write well together.” In 1995 the team recorded their first album together, Welcome to Webaworld, which drew on material from Garretson’s stage production, Weba World, and the following year they formed their first band Puttanesca, which recorded an album in 2006. In 1997 they formed the Eastside Sinfonietta, which created contemporary arrangements of classic songs from the Weimar Republic. The Sinfonettia was invited to be the featured performers in a production of the Brecht-Weill play, Happy End, that was staged at L.A.’s MOCA in 2003, and it led to the recording, Don’t Be Afraid, the same year. Subsequent collaborations include UTOPIA/Dystopia, a production of John Malpede’s Los Angeles Poverty Department that was staged at Redcat in 2007, and My Moby Dick, presented at the Broad Stage in 2013. Both Gorodetsky and Garretson continue to work independent of one another as well. In 2012 Garretson wrote and recorded a bossa nova record, Such is Love, without Gorodetsky; during that same period he became a member of grind-core metal band, Resistant Culture. Regardless of the independent projects that each may be involved with, they continue writing together. For the past two decades Gorodetsky and Garretson’s working process for all these disparate projects has been to write songs together; give the charts to other musicians they were working with at the time; polish the songs through a series of public performances; and, finally, record the songs. My Skin Craves Soil is different, and is an expansion of everything they’ve done together thus far. “If you live in LA you throw a dime and there’s a brilliant musician,” Garretson adds. We could easily have involved other musicians, but we consciously chose not to.” “The music isn’t weird or impenetrable and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been with something I’ve done musically,” Gorodeetsky adds. “I like the fact that we’ve created something that doesn’t fit easily into a single genre. I also like that we took our time with it, that there are no other musicians on the recordings, and that it’s totally ours.” With plans for an expansion of the visual component of the piece, and a national tour, My Skin Craves Soil was born in southern California, but it’s definitely not regional theater; rather, the multiple musical traditions that come together in the song cycle, and the ideas and concerns that shape the piece, speak to us all.