The Staves – Emily, Jessica, and Camilla Staveley-Taylor – have teamed up with New York City-based ensemble yMusic for new album The Way is Read.
The album will be released digitally on 24th November 2017 and on limited edition vinyl on 1st December 2017 through Nonesuch Records.
The Staves were commissioned by Justin Vernonās Eaux Claires Festival in 2016 to collaborate on a live performance piece. That led to the band collaborating with yMusic and recording an album together.
[brid video=”175507″ player=”531″ title=”The Staves & yMusic Trouble On My Mind Official Video”]
The Way is Read is produced by Rob Moose and Jessica Staveley-Taylor and mixed and engineered by Brian Joseph at his studio, Hive, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Emily Staveley-Taylor says of the collaboration, āOur aim from the outset was to truly collaborate with yMusic. We wanted to feel like instruments and join in with some of yMusicās existing work, using our voices in ways we hadnāt previously explored. We chopped up compositions and put them together again in new ways. We took old folk songs and made them abstract. The idea of forming an orchestra with these incredible musicians was fascinating. What we have ended up with is everything weād hoped, more than we dreamed, and hopefully the tip of the iceberg.ā
Rob Moose of yMusic adds, āWhen Justin raised the possibility of our groups collaborating, we immediately upped the stakes by focusing on a combination of new Staves songs and transformations of yMusic’s composed works. It was as much a thrill to hear songs emerge organically over sections of intricate chamber music as it was satisfying to strip songs of the instrument that created them, whether guitar or piano, in order to craft new connective tissue. This project was born of voice memos sent back and forth across the seas, two frenetic days in a Manhattan rehearsal space, a festival set, and a single day of recording in the woods outside of Eau Claire.ā
The two groups will come together for a series of live shows at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on 1st and 2nd December.
Fans who pre-order the album will get an instant download of Trouble on My Mind.
The Way Is Read track listing is:
1. Hopeless
2. Take Me Home
3. Trouble on My Mind
4. Bladed Stance
5. All My Life
6. Silent Side
7. Year of the Dog
8. Courting Is A Pleasure
9. All The Times You Prayed
10. Appetite
11. Sprig of Thyme
12. The Way Is Read