The CHANT Artist Collective announce their debut album Relics of Tree Worship (In Dub). The new record is being released on 29th May 2026 on Vinyl and CD and 26th June 2026 on all DSPs via a new eco-label, Balance Recordings. Featuring artwork by the late Jamie Reid, it marks the first in a planned series of releases from the evolving collective of musicians, producers and environmental artists. Today they share the lead track ‘See-De-Trees’. Watch the video here.

Featuring Youth (Martin Glover), Gaudi, the late Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Kermit Leveridge (Black Grape), Don Letts, Dan Morrell and Planetman, the record blends dub, ambient textures, spoken word and ritual chant into a meditation on trees as cultural, spiritual and ecological anchors.

The album’s ‘Vision Tree’ artwork was originally created by Jamie Reid in the 1990s and revisited for this project, one of his final creative works. Courtesy of the Jamie Reid Estate and John Marchant Gallery, the image anchors the project in a lineage of British countercultural art, extending Balance Recordings environmental ethos into visual form.

The CHANT Artist Collective was formed by environmentalist Dan Morrell and producer Youth as a creative extension of Morrell’s long-standing tree-planting initiatives. Released via new eco-label Balance Recordings, and by focusing on the “Joy of Balance” rather than the “guilt of offset,” the world is invited to witness the restoration of nature as a sacred act. A proportion of funds from Relics of Tree Worship (In dub) will be used to create Land Art Forests around the world with locations to be announced soon.

“The bottom line of the CHANT Artist Collective is simple,” says Youth. “It’s artists coming together to plant trees while making great music.”

Each track on the album is dedicated to a specific tree species. Album opener ‘See-De-Trees’, featuring Kermit Leveridge, draws on the cedar’s vast mythological and spiritual lineage – from the forests of Gilgamesh to sacred architecture and ceremonial spaces across cultures. Rather than treating trees as a metaphor, the CHANT Artist Collective approach them as living collaborators; field recordings and organic textures intertwine with deep, spacious dub production to create an immersive sonic environment.

As a dub record, Relics of Tree Worship (In Dub) uses repetition, low-frequency depth and space as a form of meditation. Youth and Gaudi’s production balances analogue warmth with expansive sound design, while contributions across the album bring history, myth and contemporary environmental urgency into dialogue. The project also marks one of the final creative appearances of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, whose legacy of sonic experimentation and spiritual subversion resonates throughout.

For Kermit Leveridge, the project offered a deeper connection to the natural world. “Be here right now,” he says. “Stand in the dirt, get it between your toes. This is the real thing.” His contribution to ‘See-De-Trees’ channels both mythic history and lived experience, grounding the record’s expansive themes in something immediate and physical.

Across ten tracks, from ‘Grand Father Oak’ to ‘Silver Ghosts (Moon Light on Birch)’, the album traces a mythic botany of resilience, memory and continuity. Where dub once dismantled structure, here it becomes a reflective space for reconnection – grounding sound in soil, history and collective action.

TRACKLISTING

• See-De-Trees (Sunglasses After Dark)
• Willow Mother (Cauldron of Knowledge Dub)
• The Ocular Hawthorn (Clevermore Evermore Cloven Fool in Dub)
• Sequestral Dreams (High above the Clouds Dub)
• I Love YEW (Sunshine in the Darkest Night Dub)
• Mythos of the Magnificently Plain (Empress of the Multiverse, Ark of the Cosmos Dub)
• Grand Father Oak (Master of the Myths, Master of the Magic Hare Krishna Dub)
• Rowan Concupiscence (Two in the Bush, Berry Vicious Dub)
• Silver Ghosts (Moon Light on Birch)
• Revelation Generation (Seeds of Creation, Beech Dub)

 

Note to Editors

About Balance Eco & Balance Recordings
Balance Recordings is a SPACE PUNK eco-label powered by Balance Eco, a first-of-its-kind platform that moves beyond the traditional concept of carbon offsetting. Rather than focusing on the “guilt” of offset, Balance emphasizes the “joy of balance” – a proactive approach to regeneration. Balance creates a three-pillar approach, combining biodiversity and social economics with the fight against climate breakdown. These three issues are intimately interconnected; Balance operates on the principle that it is inappropriate to deal with them in isolation. By bringing them together, the platform achieves economies of scale and a greater capacity for action. Balance supports tree-planting and “Land Art Forest” initiatives through these core pillars:

• Biodiversity: Restoring and protecting complex, vibrant, native ecosystems.
• Social Economics: Creating community-based income and long-term economic well-being.
• Climate Action: Actively engaging in the fight against climate breakdown by linking creative output directly to regenerative land projects.

 

About Founder Dan Morrell
Founder Dan Morrell is a pioneer in the environmental sector who co-coined the term “Carbon Neutral.” Having evolved his philosophy beyond traditional offsets, he now champions “Balance”—a holistic model designed to be more impactful and restorative than simple carbon mitigation. With a historic track record in innovative action, Morrell has catalysed the planting of millions of trees and has worked alongside iconic figures such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Joe Strummer, the Sex Pistols, and Pink Floyd to drive global climate action.

Balance Live & Industry Sustainability
Balance Live provides the touring and live events industry with a framework for genuine sustainability. By helping festivals and concerts understand their environmental footprint, the initiative allows the industry to address its impact through high-integrity projects that favor biodiversity and social equity.

• AIF Festival Congress: This year’s Congress has been officially “Balanced,” with Balance Units allocated to the Loch Ness Forest. This partnership is fostering a vibrant ecosystem in the heart of the Scottish Highlands through a dedicated afforestation project.
• Ninja Tune: A foundational partner, the independent label collaborated with Balance during its development phase, with their investment supporting critical regenerative projects at the Forest of Marston Vale.

 

What is Space Punk?
Space Punk is an art movement and genre “downloaded from the future” – specifically 100 years ahead – bringing with it the solutions and ideals of a future century. It carries the “anybody can have a go” DIY ethos of original Punk Rock. In the Space Punk world, if you know what you are doing, you turn up and take part. This first album in a series is a metaphor for environmental solutions: it features artists “turning up” and applying their expertise to create something meaningful. It posits that when people who know what they are doing show up to the biodiversity, social, economic and climate fight, tangible solutions are inevitable.