There is a striking intimacy throughout Swimming, the sophomore album from Oropendola (Brooklyn-based Joanna Schubert). With unwavering reflection and resolve, it rejects what keeps us contained and disconnected, clawing toward something wilder. What would it be like for each of us to inhabit our fullest experience of connection and vulnerability?

In contrast with Waiting for the Sky to Speak, Oropendola's kaleidoscopic chamber-pop debut, Swimming is foundationally a piano-vocal record. Co-produced with Zubin Hensler (Half Waif, Westerlies, Twig Twig), the album captures Schubert’s penchant and reverence for unfettered live performance. It was recorded as multiple solo sets in her childhood basement, on the same Steinway upright she grew up playing. Schubert’s arrangements feature close collaborators/bandmates Elizabeth LoPiccolo and Gabby Sherba, whose vocalizations recall the bold, idiosyncratic energy of The Roches. Instrumentation oscillates between jagged and lush, with LoPiccolo on flute, Hensler on synths and electric bass, and Schubert sprinkling in touches of toy piano, harpsicle, and cello.

Conjuring the raw incisiveness of Fiona Apple and the oddball playfulness of Regina Spektor, Schubert digs deep and has a grand time doing so. The seven songs of Swimming paint vivid scenes: piercing confessions, woozy barroom ballads, improvised woodland odes. Desire Keeps Me Company juxtaposes sumptuous imagery with crass mundanity. Pyre - inspired by a book about death practices - blazes with pulsing synth and syncopated speak-sing. The Baroquian odyssey Moss Covered Alder Tree soars towards collective catharsis.

"Set me loose in a wild field / swelled roses, red balloons" Schubert sings, "I must soften now / make room, make room."

And so we soften. And release. 

Waiting for the Sky to Speak is the maximalist kaleidoscopic chamber pop album I always wanted to make. Every song inhabits its own sonic world and journey, yet somehow they all create a cohesively nonlinear story. It’s been described as “a rich cut-and-paste musical collage,” “on the borders of art and pop,” “wonderfully unshackled," and “expansive.” One of my favorite “reviews” has been the not-irregular post-show comment: “Your music sounds like the inside of my brain.”

WftStS was recorded/mixed/co-produced by dream collaborator Zubin Hensler during the darkest days of the pandemic (made so much brighter by creating this together), and released with the immense help and generosity of Spirit House Records and Wilbur & Moore Records. Approximately 30 friends contributed their time and musical gifts.

It seeks to confront and understand one’s relationship to stasis, restlessness, love, belonging, and trust, set in surreal, liminal spaces such as construction sites, motels, and cul-de-sacs. “Ultimately, these songs ask one of the soul’s most fundamental questions: how do you find your footing in an impermanent world? There is no absolute answer, and thus… there is no purpose in waiting for one. How liberating it is to break out of our own cycles, to be the force that knocks the pendulum off its axis.” (Nandi Rose)

Patreon is a platform where folks can support artists directly and artists can generate community around their work.

For $5 a month or more, you can help support my creative happenings as I release this new album <3

You will have access to behind-the-scenes studio happenings, unreleased recordings, song doodles & improvisations, poetry, and other things only available on Patreon.