A Grave With No Name Premieres “Waltz”

A Grave With No Name, the recording project of Alexander Shields, has premiered a third single, “Waltz”, from his latest LP Feathers Wet, Under The Moon. The LP is due out May 5th on Lefse. The follow up to 2013’s Whirlpool, which happened to also be Shields’ first foray into a recording studio, eschewing the bedroom recordings of his previous releases, Feathers Wet, Under The Moon sees him return to a studio, this time trading the foggy confines of London for the rolling hills of Nashville, TN.

Says Shields, “I traveled to Nashville on my own in April 2014 to record with Mark Nevers at his Beech House studio. Mark has produced loads of artists I admire such as Bonnie Prince Billy, Silver Jews, William Tyler, Lambchop (whom he is a member of), and Vic Chesnutt. Mark and I worked on our own for a while and then we started calling in local Nashville musicians for overdubs such as guitarist William Tyler (who made one of my favourite albums of the past few years) and Tony Crow (who is from Lambchop, and the most amazing piano player I’ve ever seen). My best friend Daniel Blumberg (who now records under the name Hebronix and used to play in Yuck) came out to visit in the second week and helped out with some guitar and piano as well. The whole record took two weeks to track and then I travelled back to London and we spent a month sending mixes back and forth via email. It felt a long, long way away from recording alone in my bedroom.”

The approach to recording on Feathers Wet, Under The Moon was an entirely new method of recording for Shields. In the past, he had been used to writing every note of each song, and then would perform and record everything himself, or carefully instruct the players how he wanted it to sound. For this record, he presented the bare bones of a song to the group, then Mark would hit the record button, and they would just play, often creating the arrangements on the fly. The resulting record however is an exercise in precision and restraint that belies its creation. With slowly unfolding melodies, atypical song structures, and a sense of meandering melancholy, Feathers Wet, Under The Moon takes us on a personal journey that somehow feels universal.

TRACK LIST:

01. Nursing Home

02. Your Ghost By The Lake

03. Orion

04. Before The Morning Comes

05. Candle

06. Leaving

07. I Will Ride A Horse

08. Under The Ice

09. Waltz

10. Natural Light

TOUR DATES

05/01 – Sheffield, UK @ Bungalow & Bears

05/06 – London, UK @ The Lexington

05/07 – Leeds, UK @ Wharf Chambers

05/11 – Ghent, Belgium @ Café Video

05/13 – Paris, France @ L’Espace B

05/15 – Delémon, Switzerland @ SAS

05/17 – Milan, Italy @ Bulb Art

Posted 13 April 2015
File under: News

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