Leaving the noise of civilization to take refuge into the heart of the wild world, detaching from human obsessions and hustle and bustle, accepting the pace imposed by Nature. Steve Von Till continues his soloist route, slowly and in contemplative mood, going over again the paths of nocturnal folk that characterize his previous three albums, leaving aside the apocalyptic explosions of his main band (Neurosis) and the psychedelic experiments of Harvestman project. Along his pilgrimage Von Till is accompanied by a few trusted friends: Eyvind Kang (viola), Jason Kardong (pedal steel) and Randal Dunn (synth). Yet A Life Unto Itself is mainly a lonely voyage, a journey in which - even more than in the past - Von Till let his deep, hoarse voice (in some ways similar to Mark Lanegan one) and his guitar arpeggios (debtors of Nick Drake and Townes Van Zandt melancholy) brighten the woods surrounded by darkness, with some transitory, dreamlike-tasty electric lightnings. Seven songs evoking the smell of musk and dry leaves, images of vast forests, chill lakes and mountains shrouded by the autumnal fog. Von Till confirms his intense poetics sketching a path in which the frailty of a man in the presence of Nature is balanced by his great interior strength in the attempt to cope with her. Intimate and shamanistic, A Life Unto Itself is the gift that Von Till gives to all the lovers of wild territories.