Loraine James never seems to stop. She dropped her excellent album Reflection last summer, and has already delivered an album this year as Whatever The Weather – alongside other singles and EPs shared through Bandcamp.
Now she announces another project called Building Something Beautiful For Me, which arrives on October 7 through Phantom Limb. It finds her reworking, reimagining and responding compositions from the avant-garde composer Julius Eastman, having been provided with a zip drive containing Eastman originals, the biography of the composer called Gay Guerilla and MIDI-transcribed stems. Building from these foundations, she has created a wholly original work that speaks across generations.
The first fruit to be shared from this intriguing project is “Maybe If I (Stay On It)”, where James’ voice is more prominent than perhaps ever, her cyclical thoughts and regrets hovering over suspended synths and minimal clicking beats. It’s reminiscent of her track “Reflection” in its honesty and interiority, but sonically more akin to the mellower Whatever The Weather tracks. It also possesses her usual magic way of sounding simple but quietly revealing depths and details on repeat listens.
Check out “Maybe If I (Stay On It)” below or find it on streaming platforms.
Loraine James’ Building Something Beautiful For Me arrives on October 7 through Phantom Limb (pre-order on Bandcamp). You can find Loraine James on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
She’ll be performing live with the London Contemporary Orchestra at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 2 October.
