Departure Songs is an album about brave but disastrous journeys. It was written in honour of the band's singer Chris Torpy, who had struggled severely with his mental health and passed away in tragic circumstances in 2013. The album art is matched by pieces for each individual song done by the band's guitarist Matt Harvey. From left to right, top row first, we have:
- The album art
- A Gallant Gentleman, about the Antarctic explorer Lawrence Oates. He was part of an expedition to attempt to be the first to the south pole, but they wre beaten by Roald Amundsen's party by 35 days. Severe conditions on the return hampered the party, and Oates in particular. He made his companions leave him to his death so that they could make it home.
- Bogatyri, about the Chernobyl liquidators. After the disaster, 600,000 people went into the exclusion zone to clean it up as much as possible. 60,000 of them would die as a result, and many more would be disabled. A bogatyr is a stock character from Russian and Ukrainian folklore, a kind of questing knight
- The Last Dive of David Shaw. Shaw was an Australian diver who held several records for depth. He died while attempting to retrieve the body of another diver, Deon Dreyer, from a sinkhole.
- Challenger Part 1 and Challenger Part 2, which are of course about the Challenger disaster.
- A final untitled piece that is not connected to a song. I don't think there is an explicit explanation for, but in my opinion it's clearly a depiction of Torpy.
The pieces can be seen in more detail here http://www.welostthesea.com/photos#/departure-songs-poster