Jonathan Meiberg is no stranger to musical collaborations. He began his career with playing Whu Gnu, but quickly transitioned to other projects. He began playing with musician, Will Sheff, in a band called Okkervil River and then poached him for a side project. The side project, known as Shearwater, helped Meiberg rise to prominence in 2005. Since then he has also collaborated with Andy Stack (Wye Oak), Jamie Steward (Xiu Xiu), Bill Callahan and Sharon Van Etten.
Now, the talented musician has teamed up with Emily Cross and Dan Duszynski of Cross Record, to create a delicate and abstract album. The trio calls themselves Loma. They first met when Shearwater asked the newly minted Cross Record to join them on tour in 2016. Meiberg was enchanted with their talent and asked them to collaborate. The trio took to Texas to experiment and record.
Their first single, “Black Willow,” is the closing song on the album. It is a layered and slow-moving tune about survival. Cross’s vocals, both haunting and angelic, are backed by a spellbinding bass line and defiant drum beat. The video features Cross and her mirror image: a young girl who mimics her quirky dance moves across the forest.
The rest of the self-titled debut album is set to be released February 16th. According to Sub Pop, it is a detailed album that follows the many emotions of letting go of something or someone. For Cross and Duszynski, this came from personal experience-the two divorced while creating the album. Meiburg found the situation both “challenging and inspiring” for his songwriting craft. Along wth his lyrics, Meiburg provided unique melodies filled with sounds of local birds, cicadas, dogs, frogs, streams and wind chill. Duszynski took the reins mixing these disparate sounds into a relevant album full of emotion. Cross contributed her chilling vocals on all the tracks, along with her eye for visual art.
Tracklist:
1. Who Is Speaking?
2. Dark Oscillations
3. Joy
4. I Don’t Want Children
5. Relay Runner
6. White Glass
7. Sundogs
8. Jornada
9. Shadow Relief
10. Black Willow
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