Thrill Jockey has just signed the innovative Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements as a new duo. The Los Angeles-based composers will release their debut collaboration, Rain on the Road, on May 10th. Some of you may recall that McClements, alongside Meg Baird, featured on Lattimore’s And Then He Wrapped His Wings Around Me.
Today, they share their new single, “Nest of Earrings”. It opens to the barely discerned words of a whispered but joyful conversation against the backdrop of rain. As if capturing this moment in time, like a firefly in a jar, they mould and shape back into life through their instruments. Harmonious yet complex, they project a cosy carpet of warmth through which an exquisite and hypnotic soundscape blossoms. There’s a beautiful stillness to the space they create with Lattimore’s harp sounding like raindrops…a rhythmical clock percussion marking the passage of time, but nothing is hurried here, and I’m in no rush to leave.
The album was recorded in McClements’ apartment during a rainy December in LA and is described as finding an equilibrium between two usually disparate states of being for musicians: life on the road and life in the studio. Lattimore explains: “I can hear both the road-selves and the home-selves in these recordings, the two sides that don’t always get to meet.” McClements elaborates: “the rain both invokes serenity, as in the perfect peaceful drizzle at the mountain cabin, but can also be ominous… like when you are running late for a show, driving through a thunderstorm.” Mary Lattimore describes it simply as “letting melodies unspool with your close friend, no rush, nowhere to really be.”
Tracklisting Rain on the Road
- Stolen Bells
- The Poppies, the Wild Mustard, the Blue-Eyed Grass
- We Waited for the Bears to Leave
- Nest of Earrings
- The Top of Thomas Street
Ahead of the release, Lattimore and McClements will premiere the album at Zebulon in Los Angeles, CA, on May 8th—more tour news to follow.
Pre-order Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements’ Rain on the Road: https://thrilljockey.com/products/rain-on-the-road