Mammoth

Description

The voice captivates you, calmly at first. But soon, you realize that something is off, a volatility bubbling beneath the surface of Mammoth by Flora Hibberd, the British singer-songwriter’s second record in as many years. An evolution of the lush acoustic warmth of her debut album Swirl, these are ten songs swept up in the energy of an era, now electric, enraged, and vital. Things in turmoil: Hibberd’s voice is the arrow to the heart, refracted in the water of the pond and strangely reflected in the voices, the beings gathered around it. Produced by Ben Lanz (Beirut, The National), the songs on Mammoth walk a dizzying tightrope, stirred by the electronic waves of Lanz’s modular synthesizers and carried by the bodily embrace of his beautifully arranged brass sections. Hibberd’s early folk leanings have disappeared, giving way to a taut, tightly wound sound – Lucien Chatin’s raw, fluid drumming, Nils Sørensen’s direct bass lines, Victor Claass’s feverish guitar, her longtime collaborator. Figures emerge from the thicket, offering their own voices: Sufjan Stevens (Ache, Perfect Ripple), This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables and Lonny (Deltaplane, Mythic Figure), and J.E. Sunde (Shelley, Dew Pond). First composed as demos by Flora, Ben and Victor in Le Vésinet over more than six months, the drums, bass and guitar were then recorded live by Ben at Aaron Dessner’s Mini Pond studio in the Basque Country. Carefully mixed in Paris by Étienne Caylou and brilliantly mastered by Chab, Mammoth sparkles with pop brilliance without ever softening its uneven edges.