Hari ieu kami ngabagéakeun video pikeun "River Runs Through" - single ketiga jeung final ti Cosmos Forever, lapangan anyar anu indah ti Catskill, NY-based, songwriter Hawai'i-lahir Lea Thomas (pronounced "lay-uh"). "River Runs Through" datang jeung video mimpi jeung hébat 8mm filmed, kali ieu ditéang di Jepang dina perjalanan pikeun ngunjungi keluarga.

Ketika kami nyokot album ieu, kami ngadaptarkeun di buleud, nyandak live di kamar dimana jandéla ngalawan hideung. Kuring ngingat yén éta pisan silih di luar — teu angin, jeung teu aya daun nu aya dina runtuyan runtuyan anyways. unggal sora urang ngahasilkeun ningali amplified ngalawan silih tina musim. Kuring ngidinan pikeun ninggalkeun ruang pikeun band kuring pikeun nyebarkeun dina rekaman lagu ieu hususna – jeung kuring rasa yén waktos husus na tempat dipikaresepkeun urang jadi leuwih intentional jeung responsif ka satu sama lain sabab kami bisa bener ngado.

Video anu ngabalukarkeun ieu dirékam dina 8mm nalika kuring ngunjungi keluarga di Jepang. Ngaronjatkeun semi-Japan, kuring sering ngarasakeun yén kuring hirup antara budaya jeung kuring geus ngalahirkeun loba waktos nembongkeun kumaha perspektif ieu ngagambarkeun sajarah kahirupan kuring. lagu ieu diinspirasi ku pamikiran sorangan ngeunaan kumaha geografi jeung leluhur ngatur pangalaman urang salaku individu, sarta ogé kumaha sakabéh sungai anu ngalir ngaliwatan unggal urang anu ngan ngabalukarkeun jeung ngabalukarkeun kana aliran leuwih badag tina waktos jeung spasi.

Ngeunaan LP

Lea Thomas' album "Cosmos Forever" ngabalukarkeun dina momen tina sugestion anu halus: "Let's go for a walk / Don't talk." Hers mangrupakeun suara anu damai jeung sorangan, anu percaya kana kagiatan sorangan pikeun ngabalukarkeun kebenaran tina pangalaman na filsafat pribadi, sarta pikeun ngabalukarkeun cinta endahna pikeun dunya alam. Kakuatan ieu, diinspirasi ku dibesarkan di Maui, geus dibéjérbéaskeun ku imagery elegantly simple. Fragments jeung rinci halus of a myriad landscapes béda-a spray of leaves, a curling river, a bracing trade windseem-tweave diri sorangan kana mantel tina sora anu hangat jeung lengkep.

For the recording, Thomas, her co-producer John Thayer (YAI, Ezra Feinberg, Arp), and three other bandmates traveled to a house at the end of a mountain road in the woods. There, in a hushed landscape, they discovered a peaceful respite over the course of about a week, during which something benevolent and clear-eyed had enough time to be born.

There is a lot of space to move around in these compositions, which lightly sidestep the trappings of rigid structure. They’re more like expansive fields of wildflowers rather than crafted bouquets–their nature remains ephemeral, but it is also cyclical, which suggests something of the eternal, or of timelessness.

The Hudson Valley-based songwriter’s body of work could be regarded as cyclical as well. Her 2021 album “Mirrors to the Sun” is more of a pop-oriented songwriting endeavor; 2019’s “Blue of Distance” is something more ephemeral, open-ended, and hushed; 2017’s “Want for Nothing” is filled with straightforward, breezy, and engaging hooks. This oscillation of approach is something that Thomas says has come naturally to her over the years, threading its way through each of her endeavors.

Even if the listener finds themselves immersed in “Cosmos Forever” without the context of her earlier material, however, this is an album that shines on its own, warmly rewarding deeper and repeated listening with a sense of tranquility and gentle assurance. Lushness without drama, honesty without sharpness–rare and fine qualities that suffuse every song. Like a friendly hand resting on the shoulder, this music encourages the listener to become more at ease with the unanswered questions they might contain within themselves. It suggests that to forgive oneself for being uncertain, to allow oneself to experience pure and simple goodness, is to feel more at home in the world, and to better feel the embrace of the all-encompassing universe itself.

- Jen Powers

When I was writing and recording the songs for my new album, "Cosmos Forever," I was feeling deeply into a liminal space in my life. It was late autumn of 2020, when the world was just starting to stir again. I felt like I had just moved through some massive personal shifts yet I could sense that even greater changes were coming, though I didn't know what they would be or how they'd manifest.  

When I called the band together for a few days in a quiet house in the woods, all I knew was that I wanted to see what we could create by leaning into the spaciousness of the unknown. I left open-ended sections in each of the songs so we could let intuition stir our sounds together and we ended up capturing most of the record live in a way that felt true to my intentions.
My hope in sharing these songs now is that they offer a space for someone to sit with their inner knowing and explore the mystery of their own visions. Life moves in cycles. Seasons change. Ego deaths are often followed by renewal and re-emergence, echoed in the incredible pair of paintings by Iruka Maria Toro on the front and back covers of this record. Sometimes, we just need to be still enough, for long enough, to return to trust and maybe even find some excitement in these potent in-between times.

- Lea Thomas

LIVE SHOWS

Oktober 7 - Avalon Lounge, Catskill, NY - Quivers, Field Guides, Lea Thomas
Oktober, 17 - Brooklyn, The Owl - jeung Gushes, Adelyn Strei
Oktober 18 - Woodstock - jeung Iruka Maria Toro