CINDY LEE - 'DIAMOND JUBILEE'

Formats

• W25-18 - 3xLP

  857661008629

• W25-18CD - 2xCDs

  857661008636

Details

Superior Viaduct and our new artist label, W.25TH, are proud to continue to be the home for Cindy Lee with the physical release of the celebrated album Diamond Jubilee. Universally praised, shortlisted for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize, and already hailed by Pitchfork as the 3rd best album of the 2020s, anticipation and conversation around the record has been high. Cindy Lee is the performance and songwriting vehicle of Patrick Flegel (who previously fronted influential indie group Women). Over several albums, Flegel has combined delicate melodies and sheer beauty with moments of experimentation. With Diamond Jubilee, Flegel’s undeniable songcraft comes to the foreground, embracing a more instant connection and accessibility. Timeless tales of love and longing, surrounded by sticky hooks, take the listener on an unforgettable journey. Diamond Jubilee was written and recorded over several years by Patrick Flegel in Toronto, Durham, Calgary and Montreal at Realis- tik Studios. The album was mixed by Steven Lind, who also contrib- utes to several tracks and co-wrote “Baby Blue,” and was mastered by Joshua Stevenson. Triple LP on black vinyl comes with 24” x 36” poster.

Tracks

1. Diamond Jubilee 2. Glitz
3. Baby Blue 4. Dreams Of You
5. All I Want Is You 6. Dallas
7. Olive Drab 8. Always Dreaming
9. Wild One 10. Flesh And Blood
11. Le Machiniste Fantome
12. Kingdom Come 13. Demon Bitch 3
14. I Have My Doubts 15. Til Polarity?s End
16. Realistik Heaven 17. Stone Faces
18. GAYBLEVISION
19. Dracula 20. Lockstepp
21. Government Cheque
22. Deepest Blue
23. To Heal The Wounded Heart
24. Golden Microphone
25. If You Hear Me Crying
26. Darling Of The Diskoteque
27. Don?t Tell Me I?m Wrong
28. What?s It Going To Take
29. Wild Rose
30. Durham City Limit
31. Crime Of Passion
32. 24/7 Heaven

Press

Shortlisted for the 2024 Polaris Music Prize, and already hailed by Pitchfork as
the 3rd best album of the 2020s.

'The word of mouth album of the year. - The Guardian

Audio & Video

LAURIE TORRES - 'APRES COUP'

Formats

• TU009LP - LP

  4251804182584

Details

Laurie Torres is a Canadian musician and composer raised in Montréal, Québec by Haitian parents. Since 2008, she has been a trusted stage and studio performer for Julia Jacklin, Pomme, and Land of Talk, as well as being a founding member of Folly & The Hunter, with whom she recorded four studio albums and toured Canada, Europe and the UK. In 2023, Laurie shifted focus to work on her own creations, a process of making time - the will and the need becoming omnipresent. Drawing creative inspiration from contemporary artists like Tirzah, Gia Margaret, Valentina Magaletti, Tara Clerkin Trio and ML Buch, 'Après coup’ finds Torres intersecting at a pivotal moment where artists whose marginalized identities are at the forefront in creating a beautiful array of “other options”. “Being othered and tokenized as a woman who plays music, as well as a queer and black person, takes a toll, while also positively feeding a strong urge to push and be seen.” Centering around piano, drums and synthesizer with interweaving field recordings, 'Après coup’ follows the precursor ep ‘Correspondances’ in the form of a sprawling 11-track album. Translating directly from French - afterwards, after the event - its title subliminally points at something deeper between the lines. Recorded in 2023 between tours in a small window of time where ‘normal’ life hadn't quite recommenced, Torres meticulously crafted her debut solo material in view of surrounding nature, all providing the perfect nourishment for long streams of improvisation. Built right up to the edge of a lake, Studio Wild in St-Zénon, Québec offered an unparalleled location and set up for her freeform creativity. Instrumental music seemed like a natural response and evolution for Torres who had long basked in the world of “pop music” as she elaborates: “I had an urge to use creativity as a sort of resting place, a place where things can unfold slowly and take time to reveal themselves. In other worlds words, I felt the need to make something slower, more elusive” Laurie ascends to a ‘flow state’ not dissimilar to the meditative tones of Nala Sinephro and the repeating figures of Duval Timothy. ‘Duvet’ emerges with a wide-open organ drone (Hammond B3) and stays still throughout, setting a welcoming mood. The joyful, velvety piano melodies begin to ring out before tentatively locking into a precise phrase around analogue delays that create a “breathing” effect. ‘Feux fuyants’ descends into otherworldly terrain with a burst of energy as her patterned drumming interlocks with a responding piano line fed through glitchy delays as the track folds in on itself. We return to serenity with ‘Reflets’, which moves between left and right hand piano phrases on top of an arpeggiating Farfisa synth that provides the glue and airiness. Field recordings embellish the album’s inner walls - all extracted directly from the location. Scraping, walking, singing into the air and the wind all make up its human, tangible fabric. On ‘Intérieurs’, she embraces the gifts and flaws of improvisation, leaving in an imprinted audible sigh, finding a raw beauty in the natural performance. ‘Clessidra’ insistently drives the album forwards with percussive brass cowbell tappings (one used for herds) matched with repeating piano patterns that sway in and out of sync with a surreal chorus of staggered vocal layerings. ‘Point-Virgule’ offers a delightful breathing moment ahead of ‘Correspondances’, a close relative to ‘Duvet’ stemming from a similar theme and progression. As we arrive at ‘Exit’ the pace steadies to where the piano and drums exist independently of one another, yet meeting on another latitude as if signaling the end of a conversation. With her ‘pop’ past workings never far away, Laurie artfully drifts between uplifting and melancholic hues, never overbearing or undermining one another. She plants seeds throughout and only in consuming the album in its entirety do we make sense of its seriality, as new meanings unfold where repetition and subtleties produce increasingly complex meanings. The immediacy of Torres’ recorded takes doubled with minimal overdubs create a fiercely direct, intimate and unpolished lo-fi beauty. ‘Après coup’ then is self-reflective, open and inclusive with Torres allowing herself to be fully seen. An album to be felt at close distance with unrivalled authenticity. This album stands as a testament to Laurie’s artistic evolution and serves as a beacon, inspiring her to continue nurturing her own creative pursuits and finding exhilarating freedom. “Après coup, to me, signifies that moment of conscience in the aftermath, fundamentally an experience of time, the relationship between the before and after.”

Tracks

1. Duvet 2. Lisi?re 3. Feux fuyants 4. Reflets 5. Int?rieurs 6. Carnets 7. Clessidra 8. Point-virgule 9. Correspondances 10. Golden t-shirts 11. Exit

Press

Audio & Video

MAUD THE MOTH - 'THE DISTAFF'

Formats

• LAR001/LRP034 - LP

  5070003421527

• LAR001/LRP034X - LP (COLOURED)

  5070003421510

• LAR01CDLRP034 - CD

  5070003421534

Details

Maud the moth, the solo project of Spanish-born and Scotland-based pianist, singer and songwriter Amaya Lopez-Carromero announces her new album, The Distaff, to be released via The Larvarium (digital +CD) and La Rubia Producciones (vinyl) Amaya has long used the mantle of Maud the moth as an alter-ego, a séance-like conduit to explore themes of rootlessness, identity and trauma. The Distaff in particular refers to the stick or spindle onto which wool or flax is wound for spinning, and an object which has historically been used across multiple cultures as a symbol wielded by the “virtuous woman”, an authoritarian ideal around which much of the trauma surrounding the feminine coalesces. The album takes the form of a sort of self reflective and surreal autobiography. It was in part inspired by the poem of the same name written by the Greek poet Erinna, as she mourns her friend's loss of individuality and agency in exchange for marriage - and therefore safety and acceptance in the eyes of society. The album exists in an ethereal but violent world of aesthetic overlaps where time stands still and fictional and reimagined folk sits at the table with Maud the moth’s usual sonic menagerie. It is the result of a lifetime of obsession with sound and music, where glimpses of musical genre offer insight into Amaya’s artistic interests and her participation in the underground European scene for many years, in bands such as healthyliving. Heavier, darker, and more exposed than any of her previous works it features some highly accomplished artists, such as Seb Rochford (Patti Smith, Polar Bear, Sons of Kemet, Pulled by magnets, etc.) on drums, Alison Chesley (Helen Money) on cello, Fay Guiffo on violin and Scott McLean (Ashenspire, healthyliving, Falloch) on guitar, saxophone and synthesiser. Maud the moth shares the video for "Siphonophores". About the track, Maud the moth says; I wrote "Siphonophores" on guitar, during the first lockdown, a period where I was kind of trapped between an almost empty flat in Edinburgh and Dresden. It was an incredibly harrowing time, but also one of hope and where important new things were being birthed. I felt incredibly sensitive to everything, almost like life was happening in slow motion. I´m not a confident guitarist since I am completely self-taught, but, probably because of this, I feel that this instrument allows me to focus on aspects of the songwriting that I normally overlook when writing on piano, and I think it was a necessary step for this song to exist. Something else which I've been really exploiting lately and features strongly in the album is the percussive capabilities of the piano, and in particular, of the sustain pedal when mic'd up. This can be heard very clearly at the beginning of "Siphonophores". Written and arranged by Amaya, with some contributions in the later role from the aforementioned collaborators, the album presents nine tracks originally written entirely on acoustic piano as accompanied voice pieces, in pure singer-songwriter fashion. The album was co-produced and recorded by Scott and Amaya in different studios across the UK between January and July of 2024, in a process that started shortly after the 2020 pandemic and finished alongside the album recordings in a detailed, organic and at times obsessive process aimed primarily at capturing the natural dynamics and expression of free performance. The Distaff was mixed in its entirety by Scott and mastered at Abbey Road by Alex Wharton (Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Aurora, Kathryn Joseph etc.) Despite being born of a very personal point of view, the album lacks a specific narrator and was conceived almost as a sonic trousseau, where the needle point, silks and other family heirlooms have been swapped for out-of-the-corner-of-the-eye memories of rural Spain by the vineyards, family disputes, old tales of wartime pains, generational breaches and finally the conflict of migration and estrangement. The songs paint dystopian pastoral scenes which evolve throughout the span of one fictional day outside of time and coherent locations and where imagination (often the only account surviving from traumatic events and gaslighting) has become indistinguishable from fact. The Distaff attempts to acknowledge past trauma, comprehend and process some of the more difficult aspects which have contributed to our darker self and offer closure and solace through creative catharsis.

Tracks

1. Canto de enramada
2. A temple by the river
3. Exuviae
4. Burial of the patriarchs
5. Siphonophores
6. Despe?aperros
7. O Rubor
8. Fiat Lux
9. Kwisatz Haderach

Press

Audio & Video