Mary Lattimore at Brudenell Social Club

A true master of her craft, experimental harpist and composer Mary Lattimore brings her transporting music to Brudenell Social Club this September.

Hailing from Los Angeles, Mary Lattimore has spent the last decade carving out a real niche: dreamlike, gently psychedelic music for harp and effects. Rooted in improvisation, her work paints abstract pictures loaded with wistful nostalgia; listening feels almost like reaching towards a half-remembered moment from your childhood. Atop ambient drones, melodic webs criss cross, refracted through effect chains that bring lush, swelling textures and glistening countermelodies. It’s intoxicating stuff.

Lattimore has five solo albums under her belt so far, with a standout being 2020’s Silver Ladders, recorded with producer and guitarist Neil Halstead (Slowdive, Mojave 3). But her career is also marked by her passion for collaboration. She’s written parts for songs with some brilliant artists, among them Meg Baird, Thurston Moore, Sharon Van Etten, Jarvis Cocker, Kurt Vile, Steve Gunn, Ed Askew and Fursaxa. All this collaborative work opened the door for Lattimore to widen her vision for 2023’s Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, which finds her communing with friends, contemporaries, and longtime influences, in full stride yet slowing down to nurture songs in new ways.

The cast for this album includes Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Meg Baird, Rachel Goswell (Slowdive), Roy Montgomery, Samara Lubelski, and Walt McClements, all of whom, Lattimore says, “have deeply affected and inspired my life”. While her instrument’s luminous tone remains the music’s defining characteristic, these collaborators bring new textures that gently tilt the formula. Lattimore’s own voice also comes into play, drenched in reverb and adding an otherworldly sheen. Taken as a whole, the record conjures the feeling of innocent escape, flying away towards a childhood dream that’s just out of reach, surreal, and tinged with sadness.

“When I think of these songs”, Lattimore says, “I think about fading flowers in vases, melted candles, getting older, being on tour and having things change while you’re away, not realizing how ephemeral experiences are until they don’t happen anymore, fear for a planet we’re losing because of greed, an ode to art and music that’s really shaped your life that can transport you back in time, longing to maintain sensitivity and to not sink into hollow despondency.”

At Brudenell Social Club, expect to hear songs from this latest album, alongside music from across her career, and prepare to be transported somewhere quite beautiful.