American guitarist Bill Orcutt and Guatemalan cellist/vocalist Mabe Fratti have teamed up for a new album. Almost Waking is set to arrive on May 22 via Tin Angel. The striking title track and ‘El inicio es cuestión de suerte’ are out today. Take a listen below.
“I had known about Bill’s music for a while: since his 2017 release under his own name,” Fratti said in a press release. “I connected a lot with his music and I had no idea that years later we would be collaborating! It was a total surprise that we started chatting on the internet of collaborating! — we bounced ideas back and forth, all starting with a series of guitar solo stuff that Bill sent me. I had a great time with the pieces and in some of them had the honor to collaborate with I. La Catolica in the studio here in Mexico as well where we were trying to decipher the harmonic possibilities of Bill’s ideas and very carefully develop some good melodies that followed correctly the guitar. The vocal melodies followed also the same principle of trying to get tight with Bill’s iniciatives. The idea was to leave a lot of space but in only one of the tracks I just went on with the idea of harmonizing shamelessly the vocals. The album ended up having this nostalgic vibe to it. I am so happy on how it turned out and grateful with the crazy coincidence that made it happen!”
This Friday, Orcutt will release a new album called Music in Continuous Motion. Along with I. la Católica, Fratti released the excellent LP Hagen as Titanic last year. Revisit our Artist Spotlight interview with Mabe Fratti.
