Orchid Mantis is the experimental solo recording project of Atlanta’s Thomas Howard. The project began in 2014 and attempts to inhabit the edge between ambient song structures and pop songwriting, employing unusual/lo-fi recording methods & weird, obscured samples.
“The title track of the album picks up where my previous project left off in the ongoing construction of my own personal mythology symbology derived from the most meaningful and transformative forces in my life. In physical terms, the yellow house is where I spent the last year writing and recording this album (and parts of the last), but in a larger sense, it represents the synchronous, cyclical patterns the trajectories of lives seem to adhere to: nothing is ever truly here, and nothing is ever truly gone – leaving and returning, reoccurring.”
“Last year, a symbol of my childhood, my grandparent’s yellow house in Sweden, was sold and repainted, forever altered. As if predestined, that same year my friends and significant other rented out the new yellow house in which this album was completed – all but the title track: the last song recorded for this project, Yellow House was written and recorded in just the last few weeks while moving out of the titular house and settling into yet another unfamiliar place. The longer I turn on this cyclical axis of being, the more this ebb and flow of impermanence begin to feel like its own home.”
Releasing 11/11 on all digital channels, Yellow House is dedicated to the short-lived Yellow House studio, in which this album was written and recorded throughout the summer of 2018, immediately after the release of the last project.
“Immersed in an intense period of inspiration, I conceived Yellow House as a response to (and continuation of) my previous work, driven by an unshakable feeling that I was in the position to do everything that album did better and more cohesively, and that the loose narrative thread connecting these last few albums (Flashbulb Memory onward) continued to extend directly into the new songs I was writing. It feels important somehow to share these songs as close to the release of Kulla Sunset as possible – almost as a second half, and as a proper conclusion to this creative era.”
“Many songs utilize imagery and sampled material associated with esoteric, supernatural, and generally transcendental experiences and themes. This came about as a natural extension of what has consistently excited me about listening to and creating music – the mystical associations it has with altered states of consciousness and heightened human awareness. Effective music (and art) has an unparalleled capability to elevate our engagement with reality; this is evident to anyone who has had transcendent and surreal experiences through live performance, or, more simply, just appreciating the harmony of their external surroundings and what they are listening to in their headphones.”
“Yellow House picks up where my previous project left off in the ongoing construction of my own personal mythology and symbology derived from the most meaningful and transformative forces in my life. Last year, an emblem of my childhood, my grandparent’s yellow house in Sweden, was sold and repainted, forever altered. As if predestined, that same year my friends and significant other rented out a new yellow house – in physical terms, this is where I spent the last year writing and recording this album (and parts of the last), but in a larger sense, the yellow houses represent the synchronous, cyclical patterns the trajectories of our lives seem to adhere to nothing is ever truly here, and nothing is ever truly gone – leaving and returning, reoccurring.”
Links
http://late-summersun.tumblr.com
https://soundcloud.com/orchid_mantis
https://twitter.com/latesummersun
https://www.facebook.com/latesummersun
