Mutual Benefit announces new album and shares two new songs
MUTUAL BENEFIT ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM THUNDER FOLLOWS THE LIGHT – 21ST SEPTEMBER 2018 ON TRANSGRESSIVE
HEAR TWO NEW SONGS “NEW HISTORY” AND “STORM CELLAR HEART” NOW
http://transgressive.co.uk/thunder-follows-the-light/
RARE SOLO SHOW AT THE LEXINGTON, LONDON THIS THURSDAY (24TH MAY)
WORLDWIDE FULL BAND SHOWS TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY
Mutual Benefit, the songwriting outlet for multi-instrumentalist and producer Jordan Lee, is pleased to announce details of a new album Thunder Follows The Light on 21st September via Transgressive Records.
Following his last outing, 2016’s acclaimed Skip a Sinking Stone, Lee marks his return with a patient and prismatic collection of songs accrued over the past two years.
Lee — who grew up in Ohio and is currently based in New York — has crafted pop experiments for almost a decade, blending orchestral instrumentation and ambient electronic sounds. His new album features an array of friends and many returning collaborators.
Commenting on “New History”, one of two tracks to be shared from the album and which features vocals from Johanne Swanson (of Yohuna), he says:
“I think people in power benefit greatly from a general lack of historic memory in the US. I’ve been wondering if the first step to imagining a more just world is to study our history better, not just the linear revisionist one that is oft-repeated but all the unsung champions of equal rights as well as the acts of unthinkable cruelty that humans are also capable of.”
“New History” is the album’s truest folk song, with twangy harmonica and slide guitar. Its inspiration came to him while spending time in the economically depressed area of Ohio where his parents grew up.
The other song shared today, “Storm Cellar Heart”, is an ode to taking shelter and the fraught impulse to hide from the loudness of the outside world. It’s more of a long question than an answer: “Is it storms that help make the heart grow?”
Lee: “Writing this provided a reminder that while moments of recharging are important, I didn’t want to get too entrenched in escapism instead of the messiness of living.”
It was whilst sitting through a huge storm in rural New England that Jordan found himself becoming transfixed by the time in between the lightning and thunder. “The silence thick with inevitability,” he notes, before continuing that, “While I was writing the record, everywhere I looked, I saw massive societal strain on both people and the environment, and began to wonder if this is the lightning before some thunderous change. If we are living in that in-between time.”
Mutual Benefit will shortly be announcing new live shows in North America, UK, Ireland, Europe and the rest of the world. He is also set to play an all-too-rare solo UK show this Thursday (24th May) at The Lexington, London.
Thunder Follows The Light is released on all formats (via streaming platforms, plus limited edition coloured vinyl, CD and cassette), available via all usual outlets, through Transgressive Records.
Mutual Benefit Thunder Follows The Light tracklisting
Written In Lightning
New History
Storm Cellar Heart
Shedding Skin
Come To Pass
Waves, Breaking
No Dominion
Mountains Shadow
Nightingale Sing
Thunder Follows
“New History” https://youtu.be/ljRLCmH-bns
“Storm Cellar Heart” https://youtu.be/ov0MyWGAIWY
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