NEWS : WED, JUN 26, 2024 at 7:00 AM

Loma Shares “Affinity” Official Video From How Will I Live Without A Body?

This Friday, June 28th, Loma (Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski, Jonathan Meiburg) will release How Will I Live Without a Body?, their third album.
 
Its eleven tracks feature the highlights “How It Starts,” “Pink Sky,” and today’s offering, the hypnotic official video for “Affinity,” directed by Allison Beondé.
 
Beondé offers this, “In creating the video for ‘Affinity,’ I wanted to collect quiet moments that explore the experience of inhabiting a body, existing both collectively and simultaneously alone. Capturing people in public spaces embodying their own experience, their own world, while surrounded by others, the song is carried on a rolling rhythm reminiscent of waves—a soft and mysterious ebbing and flowing of time marked by something so elemental to our existence and uniquely capable of eliciting reflection on what it means to be alive.”
 
How Will I Live Without a Body? was produced and recorded by Loma in England, Texas, and Germany, mixed by Dan Duszynski, mastered by Steve Fallone, and mixed for Dolby Atmos by Steven Wilson. All songs were composed by the group—with a few nudges from a unique AI (see below).
 
How Will I Live Without a Body? is a gorgeous, unique, and oddly comforting album about partnership, loss, regeneration, and fighting the feeling that we’re all in this alone. Many of its songs have a feeling of restless motion; faceless characters drift through meetings and partings, tangling together and slipping away.
 
Throughout, the core of Loma’s sound remains intact: earthy, organic and deeply human, anchored by Cross’s cool, clear voice.
Loma’s previous album, Don’t Shy Away, was galvanized by the encouragement of Brian Eno. This time, they were inspired by another hero, Laurie Anderson, who offered a chance to work with an AI trained on her work. Meiburg sent it a series of photos; Anderson’s AI responded with two haunting poems. “We used fragments of these poems in ‘How It Starts’ and ‘Affinity’,” he says. “And then Dan noticed that one of AI-Laurie’s lines, ‘How will I live without a body?’ would be a perfect name for the album, since we nearly lost sight of each other in the recording process.” [Read more about the album’s genesis here].
 
How Will I Live Without a Body? is available to preorder on CD/LP/DSPs from Sub Pop. LP preorders from megamart.subpop.com (North America), Mega Mart 2 (UK/EU), and independent retailers worldwide will receive the limited Loser edition vinyl on Transparent Smoke (US) and Neon Orange (UK/EU) (All whilst stock lasts!).
 
As for How Will I Live Without a Body?’s cover art, returning collaborator Lisa Cline took inspiration from the histories of “bog people,” human bodies found naturally mummified in peat bogs. (From Wikipedia“These “bodies” are both geographically and chronologically widespread, having been dated to between 8000 BCE and the Second World War.”).
 
What people are saying about Loma’s
How Will I Live Without a Body?:

“A masterclass in atmospherics” ★★★★ MOJO
 
“As beautifully ethereal as the title suggests.” 8/10 - Uncut

“The much anticipated follow up to their ethereal sophomore album, Don’t Shy Away, sees the band mine a new musical depth; sharing powerfully earnest lyricism and utilizing sophisticated production techniques.” 9.1/10 - Northern Transmissions
 
“Where 2020’s Don’t Shy Away played with ornate arrangements that leaned toward British art rock and psychedelia, parts of How Will I Live Without a Body? were recorded in the English countryside (in addition to Texas and Germany), where a ruined chapel was used to record vocals due to its natural reverb. Indeed, Loma can do a lot with very little. The drums on “Arrhythmia” build up to the clatter of what sounds like running horses as singer Emily Cross harmonizes with herself, creating an atmosphere that’s more important than any single lyric.” SLANT MAGAZINE



Loma
How Will I Live Without A Body?
 
Tracklisting
1. Please, Come In
2. Arrhythmia
3. Unbraiding
4. I Swallowed a Stone
5. How It Starts
6. Dark Trio
7. A Steady Mind
8. Pink Sky
9. Broken Doorbell
10. Affinity
11. Turnaround

Posted by Abbie Gobeli