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Oct 06, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Loma

Loma are releasing a new album, Don’t Shy Away, on October 23 via Sub Pop. Now they have shared another song from it, “Elliptical Days,” via a video. Watch it below.

Loma consists of Shearwater singer Jonathan Meiburg, alongside Emily Cross (of Cross Record) and Dan Duszynski. Cross and Duszynski directed the video (filming it in Dripping Springs, Texas).

Cross had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Elliptical Days’ was one of those songs that was pretty well fleshed out by Dan and Jonathan by the time I heard it. I loved how different it sounded from what we usually make together, but it was somehow still in the Loma realm—and the horn arrangement made it really special for me.

Meiburg adds: “The horn session for Don’t Shy Away was one of the most exciting moments in making the record. They drove out to the studio one evening and blew their hearts out for three hours, without hearing any of the songs beforehand. I think they left feeling a bit confused about what kind of record this was, but they were really good sports about it.”

Duszynski also adds: “I started ‘Elliptical Days’ as a sketch in Ableton- an exercise to learn the software and dig through some synth sounds. Jonathan heard me messing with it and walked into the control room asking, ‘Can we use this?’ The song really came to life as he and our good friend (and touring Loman) Emily Lee started overdubbing piano and koto parts—and as usual, our collaboration transcended what any of us could do alone.”

Don’t Shy Away is the follow-up to the band’s self-titled debut album, released back in February 2018 via Sub Pop. One song from Don’t Shy Away, “Homing,” was produced by Brian Eno. The album features “Half Silences,” a new song the band shared in April 2019 via a music video (it was one of our Songs of the Week). When the album was announced they shared another song from it, “Ocotillo,” via a lyric video (it was also one of our Songs of the Week). Then in September they shared two new songs from it, title track “Don’t Shy Away” and “I Fix My Gaze,” both via videos. “Don’t Shy Away” was one of our Songs of the Week.

Apart from “Homing,” the band self-produced the album, recording it at Dandysounds studio in Dripping Strings, Texas. The band members were working on various separate projects, but in part the support of Brian Eno encouraged them to reconvene. For “Homing” the band sent the stems of the song to Eno and let him do what he liked with it. “I was a little worried,” says Cross. “What if we didn’t like it?” Eno never actually spoke to the band but his mix of the song arrived via email late one night.

Read our 2018 interview with Loma.

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