Ismay has released their debut LP, Songs of Sonoma Mountain. Mystical lyricism, ethereal vocals, and dynamic fingerpicking on guitar are the defining features of their music. With works covering wild horses to wildfire, Ismay's sound is unmistakably connected to the landscape in which they live. The album has received praise from MP3DU, Tracker Magazine and more.
Last week Ismay released their latest single "The 100 Mile View From
Virginia City" via Glide Magazine. The single touches on the vastness of Nevada's desert and captures the sound of
Virginia City through field recordings.
Ismay writes, "I was out in
Virginia City Nevada, walking past a bar that boasted a "100 Mile View". This idea intrigued me, and so I popped my head through the door, and there through a wide glass window behind the bar you could see the Nevada desert sage spreading out for hundreds of miles unobstructed. This was the most fascinating thing to me in that town, and I wanted to convey the mystery of such a place, so I wrote a song about it. I was listening to a lot of
Leonard Cohen's music at the time, and felt compelled to experiment with songwriting about a specific story/experience, rather than an emotion.
A strange thing happened to me in that bar a while later. I had returned there after writing this song but before recording it-I wanted to get real sounds from
Virginia City to put into the recording. So I stopped at antique shops and old miner's shacks, and finally decided to return to record in the bar that inspired this song. I found a sign on the door that said "NRA fundraiser", and when I looked inside there were a bunch of "cowboys" dressed in black coats and black hats. I walked in and was just getting ambience sound, pretending I was there for another reason besides recording, and got some cash from an ATM. When I got out of the bar, I was checking my recording device when two of those black coated men walked up to me. They asked what I was doing with that recording device. This made me very nervous because of the event, and because their outfits were intimidating by design. I told them "I'm recording sounds of
Virginia City for a record I'm making". They smiled and said "oh ok" and we both went on our way.
The sounds of the city did make it onto this song, from flagpoles, tourist clocks, and creaking doors."
Songs of Sonoma Mountain is available now on all DSP's. The eight tracks are released on all digital streaming platforms, two additional tracks, "The Song Of The Mourning Dove Spoken Word" and "The Song Of The Mourning Dove" are available on CD and Vinyl.
Orders are available here.
Songs of Sonoma Mountain -
TRACKLISTING
01. A Song in Praise of Sonoma Mountain
02. The Stones
03. The 100 Mile View from
Virginia City
04. When I Was Younger, I Cried
05.
The Bird in the Shed
06. In the Hospital Room
07. Sonoma Mountain Theme
08. On Leaving Sonoma Mountain
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