Maia Friedman announces Goodbye Long Winter Shadow
New York musician Maia Friedman announces her new album, Goodbye Long Winter Shadow, out May 9th via Last Gang Records, a North American tour with Basia Bulat, and presents a new single/video, “New Flowers.”
From the first moments of the album, layers of strings, woodwinds, acoustic guitar and Friedman’s warm anchoring voice blossom as if to say “you are here.” The lush arrangements and sage lyricism of Goodbye Long Winter Shadow are an enveloping statement of intent. They carry the devotion to nature Friedman fostered growing up in California’s Sierra Nevada with a new mother’s exploration of time and transformation. She spent months developing the language of the album, pursuing the music she envisioned with characteristic patience. Produced with Philip Weinrobe (Adrianne Lenker, Florist) and Oliver Hill (Magdalena Bay, Helado Negro), the result is chamber pop abounding with melodic intimacy, a world where instruments bob and weave around the heart-stopping clarity of Friedman’s voice.
Click to pre-order Goodbye Long Winter Shadow
Though 2022’s acclaimed debut Under the New Light was the first album under her name, the New York-based songwriter has honed her sound for years as a member of both Dirty Projectors and Coco. Where her debut was built from collaborative improvisation, Goodbye Long Winter Shadow is a collection of songs in the classic sense. Intimate instrumentals punctuate its running time and emphasize the connective sonic palette of orchestral instruments, pianos and guitar. Friedman’s lyricism and writing here is timeless, tightly composed and interspersed with surprising harmonic turns. If not for the heightened quality of its recording by Weinrobe, it might have been made decades ago; it’s Nico’s Chelsea Girl for today.
To begin writing Goodbye Long Winter Shadow, Friedman visited her parents’ home in California and searched their book collection. She was drawn to the zen poetry of Jim Harrison’s After Ikkyū, its sparse forms and momentary bursts of humor. From inspiration, Friedman built a method for writing her album, one she describes as “writing writing writing - editing editing editing - repeat.” After Friedman worked over the words and chords alone with a guitar for months, she turned to Hill to orchestrate parts for strings and woodwinds, having him develop the arrangements further each time a song’s section would return. The resulting songs are immaculately balanced.
Friedman wrote today’s “New Flowers” during a Song a Day week led by Weinrobe. Demoed in her music room with just an Omnichord, it’s probably the most pop-forward song on the album. The track is “about love lost, and the inevitable process of losing oneself and finding oneself again,” says Friedman. “I enlisted my dear friend Hannah Cohen to sing harmonies, and the closing guitarmony solo was dueled out by Maddy Baltor and I, side by side. It was joyful to say the least. We knew this one needed drums so we called in the legendary Kenny Wollesen and he got it on the first take. I love how Oliver Hill interpreted my demo into this beautiful arrangement for woodwinds and strings.” The video for “New Flowers” was directed by Ryan Faist and is made of collected studio footage filmed during the recording of Goodbye Long Winter Shadow.
Many stories of becoming are woven into the lyrics of Goodbye Long Winter Shadow. In them, the influence of her mother, a Jungian analyst and scholar of mythology, is felt. “She writes of artworks, dreams and myths, and draws connections between the imagery, archetypes and cultures that tell similar stories in different ways,” says Friedman. “It’s a very holistic approach to talking about and exploring mythology and fairytales.” Goodbye Long Winter Shadow is full of elegant evolution as Friedman, in the refinement of her craft and her new identity as a mother, finds new depths to explore. At turns it feels both fresh and like a private press record unearthed for cult listening. It marks new heights for a songwriter operating with supreme confidence.
