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In the afterglow of her acclaimed 2020 album ‘Silver Ladders’ (a year-end favourite of NPR, Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and others), Los Angeles-based harpist and composer Mary Lattimore returns with a culminating counterpart release, ‘Collected Pieces II’, out October 29th, 2021 via Ghostly International.
Much like its predecessor released in 2017 (‘Collected Pieces’), the limited-edition cassette and digital release features new and previously unreleased material, Bandcamp-only singles, and other obscurities from her recent archives. Selections from both collections (CP I & II) make their vinyl debut in 2022. Lattimore has described the process of arranging these releases as akin to “opening a box filled with memories,” and here that box continues to populate, accessible for both the artist and fans. Evocative material separated by years, framed as a portrait of an instrumental storyteller who rarely pauses, recording and often sharing music as soon as it strikes her. Seemingly in constant forward motion for the last five years since her Ghostly debut, Lattimore glances back for a breath, inviting new chances to live in these fleeting moments and emotions; all the beauty, sorrow, sunshine, and darkness housed within.
The lead single and one of the newest tracks in the set, “We Wave From Our Boats” was improvised during the early days of lockdown in 2020, after Lattimore walked her neighbourhood. “I would just wave at neighbors I didn’t know in a gesture of solidarity and it reminded me of how you’re compelled to wave at people on the other boat when you’re on a boat yourself, or on a bridge or something. The pull to wave feels very innate and natural.” The heart of the track is a somber loop, over top which Lattimore’s synth notes ruminate, each a gentle shimmer of optimism in the most anxious and absurd of days.
DeClunk 