It’s been a long time coming and maybe a surprise to many that it has come at all. Magic Ship is the long-awaited new album from Mountain Man which arrives on 21st September via Bella Union. Their last album ‘Made The Harbor’ was released in 2010 and was a favourite on Folk Radio which we reviewed here.
Check out their new video for ‘Rang Tang Ring Toon’ which was filmed at a dinner party…spot that vinyl collection – sorry, couldn’t help but notice that Norma Tanega debut album ‘Walking My Cat Named Dog’ from 1966 that we catch a short glimpse of.
Of the video the band say: “Rang Tang Ring Toon is a song about anticipation and the joy of being present and open–hearted with the humans around you. We decided to make a video with filmmaker D.L. Anderson where we threw a dinner party for friends. We crossed our fingers that we could capture the spirit of the song and bottle it into a kind of visual reminder to make room for joy where you can.”
Mountain Man is comprised of Amelia Meath, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Molly Sarlé who, having met at Bennington College, Vermont, began a transformation into the sound that they describe as “a creature growing from [their] mouths”.
The three musicians went in different directions after the Made the Harbor tour: Meath moved to Durham, North Carolina and eventually started Sylvan Esso. Sarlé headed for a Zen center in California. Sauser-Monnig first moved to Minnesota, then to a farm in North Carolina. They eventually all ended up in North Carolina, spending time together as old friends.
They reunited as a band last summer at the Eaux Claires music festival, on a tiny, cabin-like stage tucked into a forest, in front of an unusually large audience hanging on every note. Meath says, “When the first Eaux Claires happened, I realized it was the perfect place for Mountain Man to play, if Mountain Man was ever going to play again. Cute boys stood in stinging nettles to hear us. So many people cried. And it felt really good, just like it always did.”
Mountain Man reconvened a few months later at Meath’s home studio in Durham to begin what would become Magic Ship. Sauser-Monnig explains, “We all got together at Molly’s house in the wintertime, on one of the snowy days that rarely happen in North Carolina. We built a fire in the wood stove and shared a handful of songs that felt like they could be right for Mountain Man. It happened really naturally, and all of those songs ended up being on the record.”
“It feels amazing when we sing together, and we wanted to see if that was enough to carry a whole record. Could we just sing these songs and record them and make an album? Once we played these songs for each other, we knew the record was going to be great,” agrees Sarlé.
Magic Ship, released 21st September via Bella Union in the UK/Europe and Nonesuch Records in the rest of the world.