Mary Lattimore & Walt McClements – Rain On the Road (2024)        

Review:
“Do you see them?” Mary Lattimore whispers, as Walt McClement chuckles in recognition. While we can’t see the animals that inspired “We Waited for the Bears to Leave,” their presence and the presence of the natural world reverberates through Rain in the Road. The sound of rain provides a soothing constant amid these stately, near orchestral explorations of drone and filament. The long pieces often sound like an organ recital at a country church, with its big stone doors propped open to let god’s handiwork filter in. The two musicians play very different instruments. Lattimore’s harp executes, high, sharply defined motifs, precise, trebly and meshed in the celestial connotations her instrument has always carried. McClements’ accordion, by contrast, pushes out swelling, surging, enveloping waves of tone; it doesn’t sound much, if at all, like you’d expect an accordion to sound. Various percussive instruments are likewise layered and processed. Though “Stolen Bells,” begins with a solitary, individual distinguishable chime (you can even hear the squeak of the hinge it hangs on), it soon multiplies tintinnabulation. By mid-cut you are surrounded on all sides by icy vibrations, adrift in an overwhelming amount of sonic sensation whose layers bend and blur and interconnect. These compositions start in delicacy, even, sometimes whispers, then build in weight and density and grandeur. “A Nest of Earrings” begins in a private moment, a woman’s whispered, “Well I got married,” then the plink of harp notes and the sound of rain. The harp playing is concentrated at the icy top, the shortest of strings, the crispest of vibrations, notes that die out quickly without much audible decay, pristine and pure and idealized. Yet as you listen, the melody swells, borne on by an accordion that blares like a pipe organ, taking up far more room than the instrument usually does. Next comes the jangle of bells, the side-sliding zing of string instruments. Some rough wooden knocks and rolling harp chords mark out a rhythm, giving the piece a fundamental clockwork order, though it bulges and swoops and swells in organic ways over the cadence. The mix of ambient sounds and gorgeous, glowingly processed harp and accordion give these cuts a spiritual aura, an idealized beauty floating over recognizable sonic fragments. You find the divine in them like you’d find it in a tree or a sunset or a sudden thunderstorm, the natural beauty hinting at something beyond the natural. — dusted



Track List:
01 - Stolen Bells
02 - The Poppies, the Wild Mustard, the Blue-Eyed Grass
03 - We Waited for the Bears to Leave
04 - Nest of Earrings
05 - The Top of Thomas Street


Media Report:
Genre: ambient
Origin: Los Angeles, California, USA  
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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