Today, Light in the Attic proudly presents Slow Magic, 1977-1978, which is a collection of never-before-heard songs that Jeff Bridges wrote and recorded with a band of his oldest and closest friends. At turns unruly, inventive, vulnerable and joyfully weird, the tapes capture the artist singing and playing with total joy and abandon.

The ragtag exuberance of these recordings not only evokes LA at a specific place and time but they reveal a missing link in the life of Bridges, who is an actor that has always considered himself as a musician. A native of West Los Angeles, Bridges was born into a showbiz family that happily encouraged him to follow them into movies and television.

“I had other interests like music, painting, ceramics, all different kinds of things,” Bridges says. “And my dad would say, ‘Jeff, don’t be ridiculous. That’s one of the great things about acting. You’re going to be called upon to tap into all the talent and different interests you have.’’

The music on Slow Magic, 1977-1978 comes from a single decaying cassette labeled July 1978. It represents a cross-section of those lost 1970s sessions. Keefus Ciancia, Jean Sievers and Matt Sullivan spent the second half of 2024 working closely with Bridges to prep the music for release. Although he is on a tight filming schedule, Bridges completely devoted himself to every aspect of this release by sharing stories for countless hours, studying mixes and sequences and even hand-drawing a version of the LITA logo for the artwork.

Along with the album announcement, Bridges has shared the tune, “Obnoxious,” which is a gloriously chaotic waltz that satirizes self-consciousness, and “Slow Magic,” a sweet shuffle about stoned enlightenment. The sessions were overseen by songwriter and orchestrator Ken Lauber, who had recently relocated to LA to work with Bob Dylan and The Band at Shangri-La studio in Malibu.

He and Bridges met when Lauber did the soundtrack for Hearts of The West: “Jeff was going to Est seminars with Werner Erhard and that enabled him to get in touch with these psychological underpinnings of his life experiences up to this point,” says Lauber. “I thought he’d honed his writing and singing to a point where it could be recognized as a commercial venture.”

Slow Magic, 1977-1978 LP/Digital Track List

Side A

1. He’s Here
2. Obnoxious
3. Attitude
4. Space #1
5. Slow Magic
6. Here On This Island (feat. Burgess Meredith)

Side B

1. Light Blues
2. This Is The One
3. Space #2
4. You Could Be Ready
5. Kong (feat. Burgess Meredith)