Madison

Haley Dahl (who records as Sloppy Jane) created this chamber-pop record inside the Lost World Caverns in West Virginia, bringing in 21 bandmates from all around the country to make an impressive and ambitious orchestral album recorded deep inside the caves.

A pioneer in the industry, Dahl’s inception of the album is the first of its kind and the results are sonically stunning; Madison is an astounding, glorious record of highest order melodrama.

Dahl and her 21 bandmates recorded all of Madison from inside the caves from 3pm to 8:30 am each day over the course of two weeks. To access the space, they’d enter through the back of a gift shop, down a long tunnel where they’d walk down 200 feet of stairs to reach the entrance. Dahl and her bandmates did this steep walk with a piano. The ceiling of Lost World Caverns is massively high and is a perfect dome. The inside was also 98 percent humidity, leading to both stellar sound and also problems with tuning and gear. Engineer Ryan Howe sat in his parents Subaru above the cave with his mixing board and computer, and threaded cables down 90 feet through a hole in the ground to the ceiling of the cave.