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For longtime Bon Iver sideman S. Carey and Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter John Raymond, the opportunity to collaborate has been a long time in the making. “Even though our musical worlds were different, I always felt like there would be something there if we got together,” says Raymond. Carey adds, “When we talked about the idea of working on a record, just kind of seeing what our sounds combined would add up to, I knew there was a lot of potential. What started out as just an experiment ended up turning into something really special.”
The result is their new co-release, “Shadowlands,” a stunning, gorgeous collection of songs uprooted from simple genre descriptors. Recorded in the woods of Eau Claire, Wisconsin where the two met almost twenty years ago, the music combines the warmth and beauty of Carey’s aesthetic with the improvisational, spontaneous nature of Raymond’s, blurring the lines between indie folk, forward-thinking jazz, lush pop, and atmospheric electronic music. Soaring and anthemic moments are balanced with the intimate and meditative, giving way to a wide range of expression. Surrounding Carey’s breathy vocals and Raymond’s lyrical horn is an earthy sonic landscape that blends acoustic and electronic textures effortlessly, and the subtle, electric moments of musical interplay throughout the album repeatedly invite you deeper into their new musical world.
“There’s this homey yet ethereal quality about the music,” Raymond says. “It feels like a place you have a lot of history with, where you can let down your guard and just be in the moment. You start to notice all the little things, taking in the nuances, and ever so quietly that moment becomes something transcendent.”
After meeting as music students at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where they studied both classical and jazz music, Carey and Raymond’s careers went in very different directions. Carey would become the right-hand man for Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver), collaborate with the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Bruce Hornsby among others, and release four albums to critical acclaim from Pitchfork, NPR, and more. Simultaneously, Raymond was carving out a career as an internationally-recognized jazz trumpeter, “steering jazz in the right direction” (Downbeat Magazine) by releasing eight albums of his own and collaborating on many more, including four nominated for a Grammy.
The two reunited in 2018 when Raymond sat in with Carey on tour, and they started to float the idea of working on a collaborative, instrumental project. But as they shared some rough demos with each other and the music began to take shape, Carey remembers the scope of the album shifting dramatically. “I started to hear singing,” he says, “and once we started down that direction, the music took on a different character. It was this blending — bringing John’s aesthetic, especially his harmonic and melodic ideas, to more of a pop song form.”
An initial round of sessions in 2019 yielded the opening two tracks of the album, the droning instrumental “Morning Prayer” led by Raymond’s pastoral horn melody, and the hypnotically pulsing “Calling,” which introduces Carey’s lyrical voice for the first time and is perhaps the most emblematic song of the entire project. However, much of the other music was still in experimental form until Raymond shared it with Sun Chung, who was producing for ECM Records at the time. Chung took an interest immediately and came on board to further develop the project.
“Sun has an incredibly discerning ear,” says Raymond. “He hears the most intricate details while simultaneously having a strong vision for the whole. The music definitely wouldn’t have become what it did without him.”
As they prepared for a second round of sessions, Chung helped enlist a band of renowned musicians and kindred spirits from around the country that could hold court in both song-based and improvised worlds including pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Chris Morrissey, and guitarist Dave Devine. Everyone had an immediate chemistry with each other, and unformed song ideas organically evolved into cinematic masterpieces.
“A lot of it was just getting everyone in the same room and unleashing the songs on them and seeing where they took it,” says Carey. “We wanted to be in the room together and feed off of each other.”
The middle of the album puts the band’s dynamic on full display. Their treatment of “Chrysalis” transforms what was originally a subdued single of Carey’s into an alt-rock meets progressive jazz anthem. Beginning with Parks’ polyrhythmic piano voicings, Morrissey and Devine enter with driving bass and guitar while Carey and Raymond float overtop, weaving in and out of each other effortlessly. Directly following is “Hollow,” an instrumental that features the band’s telepathic musical conversation leading into a brief but memorable solo moment for Parks. The texture changes for “Blood Orange,” centering around Carey’s auto-tuned vocals and drum programming contributed by frequent S. Carey collaborator Zach Hanson. The band’s first take was pure magic from start to finish, so much so that upon finishing everyone asked, “were we even recording?”
Another key contributor was Sophie Payten, the Australian singer/songwriter known as Gordi, who is featured on the bright and hopeful “Steadfast” as well as the devastating “New Meaning.” Carey and Payten have history, having toured together and sung on each other’s albums. So when he and Raymond hit on the idea of bringing in another voice to their project, Payten was their first call.
“Our voices sound really good together, so it just happened naturally,” Carey says. Raymond notes, “When I sent her the songs, the ideas she came back with elevated them immediately. They helped us find the core of each song, and she really shaped them into what they would eventually become.”
The album concludes with arguably its most vulnerable track, “Beholding.” After a solemn opening melody from Raymond, the tonality changes as the band joins in ominously. Piano leads, surrounded by swirling guitars and drums as well as Raymond crying through his horn using extended, half-valve techniques. Building tension, they arrive at the final refrain which features Carey’s yearning voice in harmony with himself, singing “If you lose your way / I will circle back / I’ll always be right here / Always Always.” Raymond eventually takes the reins back from Carey, soaring emotively until the final chord which resonates and fades into the shadows.
“It’s hard to describe what the music sounds like, other than saying it’s a perfect amalgamation of our aesthetics and musical worlds,” says Carey. Raymond added, “We just put our minds together and found this common ground artistically where we were able to speak the same language. I think the music showcases that in a pretty special way.”