Jim White & Marisa Anderson "Swallowtail"
The duo avoids preconceived movements, instead focusing on their musical conversation. As Anderson puts it, “The ideas aren’t the music, they are the pathway into the musical possibilities.” Their trust in one another and skillful interplay create an effervescence throughout the album. There is an organic ebb and flow to the duo’s motions that brings a sense of serenity and ease to spontaneous transitions, each swell and retraction sounding as free as it does inevitable.
Swallowtail is a journey of steady change. White and Anderson’s preternatural alchemy as a duo allows each fleeting gesture to feel featherlight and stirring while maintaining an inquisitive spirit. Their music is an enchanting and illuminating celebration of process as joy. Swallowtail lives at the precipice of slowly unraveling revelation and the thrilling unknown, White and Anderson finding beauty in pursuit of uncovering the next moment and what possibilities lie ahead of them. The album evokes both the natural setting of its recording and the natural expanses around home. Reminiscent of the grace of its namesake’s movement through the garden’s flora, Swallowtail is a beautiful listen whose depth unfolds with the dance of this astute and untethered duo, guiding us nimbly through nature’s vistas and our dreams.
Mary Lattimore & Walt McClemants "Rain on the Road"
Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements are two of contemporary music’s most renowned innovators. Each has managed to expand the perception of their instrument’s capabilities. Lattimore inventive harp processing and looping has brought the instrument to a new audience. Her prolific run of celestial solo albums and evocative film scores have redefined the instrument in the modern consciousness. Her genre-agnostic collaborations include work with Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn, Jeff Zeigler, Meg Baird, Bill Fay and Thurston Moore. McClements, who tours as a member of Weyes Blood, is an acclaimed composer in his own right, sculpting glacial atmospherics from the accordion. The Los Angeles based duo became quick friends on overlapping tours, sharing both a drive to push the sonic possibilities of their instruments and roots in North Carolina. Mary Lattimore and Walt McClements debut collaboration Rain on the Road blossomed out of that time spent on the road together, capturing the liminal existence of touring life in deeply cinematic compositions.
Recorded in the cozy setting of McClements’ apartment during a rainy December in LA, Rain on the Road unfurls as a series of sonic vignettes, rolling landscapes hewn from longform improvisations for harp and accordion. Embellished with additional instrumentation such as the shimmering constellations of hand bells on “Stolen Bells” that glisten like lights on wet pavement, or the stately piano figures on “The Top of Thomas Street”; their pastoral pieces manage to paint vivid images.
Lattimore and McClement’s patient listening opens up space for small textures or allows the formation of soothing hypnotic cadences. The duo’s subtle use of field recordings woven into the album’s lithe atmospheres evoke their travels transporting the listener. Their sonic snapshots include an unexpected morning encounter with bears at Lattimore’s family cabin near Asheville. The resulting music is beautifully unhurried, meditative and joyously expansive.
The duo’s mastery of their respective instruments and their collective explorative nature belies the delicate complexity of their music. Their humility and their joy permeate every note making Rain on the Road – a beautiful listen.
How To Dress Well "I Am Toward You"
In his 15 years recording as How To Dress Well, LA-based musician Tom Krell has played with the concept of what we hear and how we communicate in order to create music that exists somewhere between celestial transcendence and an outsider approach to what pop music can be. In Krell’s musical world, the weight of a sample comes from his history with it, the meaning of a lyric fragment is stretched and distorted, its core skirting universal interpretation in favor of specificity. I Am Toward You is the first new How To Dress Well album in six years: with some of his noisiest, most free, and most poetic music to date, Krell opens the second decade of his career with an album that delivers on the hallmarks of his best work. I Am Toward You is a beautiful experience.
Maurice White "Manifestation"
The final recordings from the Earth, Wind & Fire founder and Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award-winner.
As a teenager, Maurice White studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music while playing in bands around town. Later, he became a session drummer at Chess Records where he appeared on records by Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Chuck Berry, Etta James, and more! In 1966 he left Chess to join the Ramsey Lewis Trio, staying with them for the next three years and a series of album releases (and winning a Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal or Group for their track, “Hold It Right There”) until 1969, when he joined two friends, Wade Flemons and Don Whitehead to form a songwriting team. They moved from Chicago to Los Angeles and changed their name to Earth, Wind & Fire.
Earth, Wind & Fire sold over 100 million records, and won countless accolades: inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame, Vocal Group Hall of Fame, and garnered four American Music Awards and seven Grammys (out of 17 nominations), including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
White was also a sought-after producer, player and songwriter. His credits include songs, albums and sessions for Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Ramsey Lewis, Pieces Of A Dream, Minnie Riperton, Barry Manilow, Jennifer Holliday, Deniece Williams, The Emotions, Walter Hawkins, The Tubes, Atlantic Starr, and many, many more. His remarkable career included solo albums, music for feature films, television shows, and a Broadway play.
After releasing a self-titled solo album in 1985, while recording Earth, Wind & Fire’s 1987 release Touch The World, White shared the producer chair with award-winning producer/songwriter Preston Glass. The result was a number one chart hit, “System Of Survival.” From this successful start, Glass and White formed a songwriting bond that lasted for nearly 30 years and resulted in over 40 songs. Three years after White’s untimely passing, 12 of those songs were released digitally as Manifestation.
Now, those 12 songs, along with six previously unissued tracks appear for the first time on CD (Digital also available), fully authorized by Kalimba Entertainment and in cooperation with Platinum Garage Recordings and SoulMusic Records. Newly remastered by multiple Grammy-winning Engineer Michael Graves, the musical spirit of Maurice White thrives as his final recordings are available again featuring new, insightful, and heartfelt notes from set co-Producer David Nathan. Manifestation is essential listening for fans of the lifelong work of the brilliant Maurice White.