Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore is among that elite group of artists who are both redefining the possibilities of their instrument and creating relevant, ground-breaking music. It was also confirmed by Swedish journalist Andres Lokko in the national radio channel P2 when he highlighted the renaissance of the harp and exemplified with her album. In her music, experimental art music and modern, serious pop are united. Namely, Lattimore uses electronic effects to enhance her graceful harp improvisations. Think cherubs on stack clouds of fractals; it shimmers, sparkles and is both crystalline melancholic and psychedelic ethereal. In recent years, the set has been expanded to include guitar, keyboard and Theremin. On the single Didn’t see the Comet (2022), she mixes country guitar à la Bill Frisell, synth pads and sparkling harp bathe in a sea of reverb.
Lattimore has released five solo albums, played on a dozen indie pop albums and been hired by Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) and Kurt Vile (The War on Drugs). She is classically trained at the Eastman School of Music in New York. During the 2000s, she was part of the underground scene in Philadelphia and played in several psych-folk bands. Her latest album Goodbye, Hotel Arkada came earlier in 2023.
“… Lattimore somehow folding a lifetime of emotion into a 10-minute track.”
– Dave Cantor, Downbeat
Although her songs often evoke a feeling of solitary contemplation, many of her pieces are born from the spark of playing off the creative energy of a peer. With Silver Ladders Lattimore worked with Slowdive’s Neil Halestead on a collection of solo compositions and joint improvisations that funnel into an album of reflective, autumnal bittersweetness.
– Fred Thomas, All music
Support: Death and Vanilla
The Malmö band Death and Vanilla released the new album “Flicker” on English Fire Records in 2023. Their unique pop mixes dub-reggae with Can’s motoric spirals, the modal looping of Philip Glass and The Cure’s dreamy pop; as well as taking references from Spiritualized, Talking Heads and Brian Eno.
Death and Vanilla uses mostly older instruments, such as vibraphone, organ, mellotron, tremolo guitar and Moog. They love the warm sounds of the older analog instruments that create a more organic sound, where every gaping contact and noise adds to the atmosphere of the music.
Death And Vanilla sounds like anything is possible, and they’ve made their own soundtracks for older movies that they’ve performed live, as well as gigs and tours in Europe and the US.
Marleen Nilsson – organ, vocals
Anders Hansson – guitar, sampler
Magnus Bodin – Moog, Mellotron
