Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, songwriter, and improviser Macie Stewart has announced her second solo album, When the Distance is Blue. While this may be her International Anthem solo debut, she’s no stranger to the label, having made numerous contributions as a musician and composer to artists on the Chicago-born recording company’s roster, including Damon Lock, Alabaster DePlume, Bex Burch, Makaya McCraven, Ben LaMar Gay and Rob Mazurek. She’s also contributed to albums by the likes of claire rousay, James Elkington and Steve Gunn; you get the picture; she’s an in-demand artist or, as the press for this new album states, she’s long-heralded in musician circles for her versatility, and stands as a distinguished, go-to collaborator across genre and style, with a collaborative CV that reads like a dream year-end list.
Stewart says her new album, When the Distance is Blue, as “a love letter to the moments we spend in-between.” The album draws its title from Rebecca Solnit’s book of essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost. The music is described as contemplative collection with a musical lexicon which lands somewhere between Alvin Curran’s Songs and Views from the Magnetic Garden and Claire Rousay’s A Softer Focus. Here Stewart creates a striking and cinematic work through collages of prepared piano, field recordings from her various travels, and string quartet compositions featuring herself on violin, Whitney Johnson (aka Matchesse) on viola, Lia Kohl on cello, and Zach Moore on double bass.
On her lead single, “Spring Becomes You, Spring Becomes New”, she says:
“This piece reminds me of a cross country train ride through different sceneries and landscapes,” says Stewart. “It’s the feeling when you’re witnessing everything pass outside your window, knowing you may never set foot there.”
The track also comes via a delightfully obtuse video, filmed and directed by Mikel Patrick Avery.
When the Distance is Blue is released on 21st March 2025 via International Anthem
Pre-Order: https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-distance-is-blue