Mary Lattimore

Mary Lattimore, a harpist now based in Los Angeles, has contributed to sessions for countless indie rock and experimental acts while also handling soundtrack assignments and issuing her own recordings. Her approach layers electronic processing onto fluid harp improvisations, highlighting the instrument’s otherworldly character and opening unexpected sonic territories. Session demand preceded her first solo output in 2012. Subsequent partnerships yielded albums and scores alongside Jeff Zeigler and Maxwell August Croy, with releases appearing on Thrill Jockey and Ghostly International. By 2018 her solo work began integrating guitar, keyboard, Theremin, and additional instruments; the 2020 album Silver Ladders extended her ambient harp textures across a broader palette. Joint projects with Growing and Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan remained central, while 2023’s Goodbye, Hotel Arkada featured input from members of Slowdive, the Cure, and further guests.

Originally from Asheville, North Carolina, Lattimore gained recognition within Philadelphia’s underground circles in the mid-2000s. Alongside participants from Espers, Fern Knight, and Fürsaxa she took part in the Valerie Project, whose live performances and self-titled 2007 Drag City album supplied an alternative score to the 1970 Czech surrealist film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. After that album’s appearance she added harp to recordings by Jarvis Cocker, Thurston Moore, Kurt Vile, and many others. Her debut solo effort, a self-titled cassette on Life Like, surfaced in 2012; Desire Path Recordings gave it wider circulation the next year under the title The Withdrawing Room on vinyl.

Late in 2013 Lattimore and frequent partner Jeff Zeigler introduced their score for Philippe Garrel’s 1968 experimental silent film Le Révélateur. The pair subsequently recorded the full-length Slant of Light, issued by Thrill Jockey in 2014. That year she received a grant from Philadelphia’s Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. Touring commenced with Zeigler in 2015, the same year the duo placed a track on Ghostly International’s Ghostly Swim 2 compilation. Lattimore also released the solo cassette Luciferin Light on Kit Records. Ghostly issued the LP At the Dam in March 2016; four months later Thrill Jockey released the Le Révélateur score, after which the duo appeared at screenings across the United States and Europe. That summer Constellation Tatsu brought out Terelan Canyon, her collaboration with En’s Maxwell August Croy.

In 2017 Lattimore released And the Birds Flew Overhead, a joint work with keyboardist Elysse Thebner Miller, along with Collected Pieces, gathering pieces previously available only on streaming platforms. After moving to Los Angeles she recorded Hundreds of Days, her most expansive solo statement to that point, which Ghostly International released in May 2018. In November she and fellow Philadelphia native Meg Baird issued the collaborative Ghost Forests on Three Lobed and toured Western Europe and the U.K. Amid further road work that included shows with Deerhoof and Iceage, Lattimore joined Merge Records and Superchunk mainstay Mac McCaughan for instrumental sessions combining her harp with his synthesizers; those improvisations became the duo album New Rain Duets, released on Three Lobed in March 2019. October 2020 saw Ghostly International release Silver Ladders, recorded by Slowdive’s Neil Halstead at his home studio after the pair first met at a shared festival. Their work together involved expanding existing demos and creating fresh material through improvisation. Collected Pieces II appeared in 2021, as did the condensed Collected Pieces: 2015-2020. A further release, Gainer, resulted from her collaboration with Growing. In 2022 Lattimore contributed a cover of Bill Fay’s “Love is the Tune” to a series that also included versions by Kevin Morby, Julia Jacklin, and Steve Gunn. That year also brought West Kensington, a hazy, psychedelic collaboration with Philadelphia guitarist Paul Sukeena.

Her next proper solo album, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, arrived in October 2023 on Ghostly International. The six-song set further broadened her instrumental and compositional scope while incorporating contributions from Meg Baird, Roy Montgomery, the Cure’s Lol Tolhurst, Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, and additional guests.