Album Notes

Something I instantly understand but don\'t know why; a touched nerve deep behind rationality _ genetic memory perhaps. I totally get it, but why?

Loch Lomond\'s Old World themes shine through the modern settings, like a weird foreign coin in the collection plate. But these cryptic descriptions are all a lot of crap.
   
Loch Lomond is a three-piece, sometimes sextet, riddled with strings, samples and beaming lyrical imagery. Put your trust in singer Ritchie Young and he\'ll guide you through all sorts of wonders and horrors, tugging loose lost memories, shaking them in the wind. Guitars and violins, cellos and tambourines, wonderful accordions, concertinas, Ritchie\'s bald-faced lyrics, somewhere in my head all this, now shamelessly invoked, the whole of it. And Kate and Rob, like the heart of a storm, he with his metronomic clacks and she like some rain goddess gushing down wind and water ...
   
All hail Portlandia!

Loch Lomond is:
Ritchie S. Young: vocals, guitars, mandolin
Kate O\'Brien: violin, cello, vocals
Rob Oberdorfer: Drums, percussions, samples

with guest appearances/help by:
Jay Clarke: keys, accordions, bass
Katie Schnepp: viola


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OLD BIO:

Little did Ritchie Young know that when he went to record some quick demos with his friend Rob Oberdorfer (The Standard) that he was beginning a year-long collaborative process which would end with a full length record for Loch Lomond and with him as the newest member of The Standard. \"When We Were Mountains\" is a document of that process.

Through the recording of Ritchie\'s sweeping melodies and arcane musical vision, Rob O. quickly moved out from behind the mixing board to play and write along with Ritchie. Tim Putnam (singer for The Standard) also took a keen interest in the project from an early stage, contributing to many of the tracks musically and otherwise. Kate O\'Brien (Iretsu), Ultimate Frisbee player and violinist extraordinaire, was also drawn into the fold when she came to play on one song and ended up as a large part of the sonic landscape of the whole album. Other friends and cohorts were brought into the project whether it was laying down tracks to translations or sampling off of their four-track demos. The list includes Jay Clarke (The Standard), Brian Gumpert (Hurt Bird), Ryan Cross (Iretsu), Tim Roth and Ashley Carson (both of Dignen).

Each song on \"When We Were Mountains\" evolved in it\'s own unique way through unorthodox production techniques and an ever-changing assortment of instruments. Several of the songs were built from the sonic scraps of older ones where parts were removed from their original context to create something entirely different. Ritchie and Rob crafted this postmodern patchwork into a sound all their own, held together by the unique melodic and lyrical vision which flows through the tracks.

In a town with a music scene as close-knit as Portland it is hard to keep anything secret for long and rough demos quickly began circulating around. The band had three shows booked before they had a lineup to play live. Over the next several months Ritchie, Rob, Kate, and Ryan, with the aid of samplers and an array of instruments, brought the album to life and made Loch Lomond into a live band. Currently, Ritchie and Rob are living in New York working on the new Standard record. Ryan and Kate remain in Portland with their band, Iretsu.

Label Contact:

alex@inmusicwetrust.com / http://www.inmusicwetrust.com