premiere: stream Montreal group MAYBEL’s magical debut album Gathering
Earlier this year, we were lucky enough to be asked to premiere "Winter City", the gorgeous debut single from Montreal group MAYBEL. It's a heartfelt love letter to the group's hometown that also acted as an auspicious introduction to the special chemistry and absolutely stunning three-part harmonies of Lauren Spear, Loris Kecaj, and Ali Hendra, and we couldn't wait to hear more. Today, we have the honor of unveiling the group's magical debut LP Gathering, a timeless collection of songs, "written over three years of growing pains and epiphanies," and inspired in part by Montreal, their enduring friendship, and Trio, the glorious 1987 collaborative affair from Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. Like that legendary collab, Gathering feels like a rare and uncanny union of kindred voices; it's one of the purest and most beautifully lucid things you'll hear this year, and we love it a lot. The group talks about the record:
Much of the process of writing and recording this album took place in nature where the quiet let us sit with our discomforts and joys, and yield something palpable from them. We carried some of that focus into this project – understanding that if you open yourself to it, growth and change comes to you; that’s what this album felt like for us... Tove Jansson, the Finnish writer, says “Gathering is peculiar, because you see nothing but what you're looking for.” In light of the current global crisis, we feel so thankful to have had the time to retreat into our friendship to write and record these songs. We’re happy to share them with you, and hope to expand that sense of Gathering into something that happens when we share and listen together, even separately.
GATHERING is out tomorrow on new Toronto label Vain Mina, but you can stream the whole thing right now below: