David Baron is a Woodstock, USA-based producer, composer and musician who has graced our pages numerous times through his collaborative tracks. For his latest album he’s teamed up with London-based singer songwriter Lettie. It’s called Endless Climb.
By Graeme Smith
Though perhaps not household names in their own right, both David Baron and Lettie are titans of the music industry. David has worked alongside The Lumineers, Shania Twain, Shawn Mendes, Lenny Kravitz and Lana Del Rey to name a few, while Lettie has worked with members of Bauhaus, Squeeze, The Cure and legendary performance poet John Cooper Clarke.
So their combined pedigree makes the album a mouth-watering prospect. Its nine tracks offer a mix of post punk, indie rock, dream pop, and cinematic music starting with focus track Escape. A richly emotive electronic soundscape opens things up before urgent percussion and Lettie’s dreamy vocals join in. The track is about a journey and you certainly get that sense of movement from it. It’s a great start.
Following it is Fairy Tale, a single we’ve shared before on our pages. Both Escape and Fairy Tale are inspired by literature and the latter is a reworking of a Miroslav Holub poem. Sat together on the album as they are proves an early treat.
Memory brings nostalgic and cinematic electronica before we get the album’s title track Endless Climb. It’s a gentle dream pop instrumental with Americana leanings that encapsulates the mood of the album beautifully. Shoot The Breeze then provides some emotive indie soft rock.
Waiting is a delicate piece of acoustic folk that is rich with retro warmth and natural imagery. The Kite has a similar vibe, intimate and storytelling. Maysong remains folky but introduces electronic and soul elements. The three tracks together are a highlight.
The album closes with Bright Lights. Another intimate moment, its melancholic intro mask the positivity in its lyrics. As the track progresses though, the complexity and vibrancy of its arrangement grows, and the vocal harmonies are wonderful touch. It proves to be a strong finish.
I’ll leave the last word to Lettie herself who had this to say about the album:
“The album Endless Climb written in collaboration with David Baron began in 2017 and is more than a collaboration for I would argue I had less of a part to play in the overall result. I cannot reach those musical heights that David Baron reaches time and time again. I am an amateur; self-taught on many instruments and losing my classical training on the piano. However, the result of the album is something of an outsider art piece. Perhaps the innocence that prevails in the collaboration – we don’t seek prizes and we write honestly – is its greatest strength. As two different people on opposite sides of the Atlantic it is always a tremendously interesting result – our shared love of unusual instruments, film music, classical music informs this album in a way that is without pretension and perhaps has its own place somewhere in the musical universe. I am grateful to John at Here & Now Recordings for curating it. I learnt over the course of five years that less is more and the nine tracks which include two instrumentals hopefully does not outstay its welcome.”
Lettie, 2022
Endless Climb is out now via Here & Now Recordings. You can listen to the whole album below.
