Walt McClements - On a Painted Ocean - VINYL LP

Stillness can imply either tranquility or stagnation. Walt McClements grappled with these opposing forces in the years it took to realize On a Painted Ocean a suite of searching accordion and pipe organ-led pieces that travel a steady course, swelling and expanding with a tide of tender emotion. The composer and multi-instrumentalist takes the title of his second album from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous epic The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and it's depiction of a boat that's stalled at sea-As idle as a painted ship/ Upon a painted ocean. It's an impression that mirrors both the process and the product of McClements's Western Vinyl , from the gentle unfurling of a raw reed tone on opener InchA Painted ShipInch to the gritty ebb and flow of effects-laden drone on InchWashed Up,Inch and the closing flutter and signal interference that noisily builds toward triumphant euphoria on InchClattering.Inch On a Painted Ocean emerges at a confluence of events and inspirations that have shifted and changed like the weather itself. It's initial sketches began with unexpected access to a Pasadena church organ in 2022, before being set aside to prepare for a busy year as a member of Weyes Blood's live band. Months on the tour bus with limited instruments led McClements to explore recreating the sound of his processed accordion on the synthesizer, layering it with the organ pieces. As that cycle came to end, McClements was eager to finish the record, but was unsure how to pick up the thread. Stuck in the doldrums of creative block, McClements took his traces of processed accordion and synthesizers, reversed pipe organ and melodica, reeds and pipes run through pedals and computers to his former home of New Orleans for Carnival. Having lived in the Louisiana city for a decade before moving to Los Angeles, McClements found renewed inspiration from his community during one of it's mo