Matthew E. White & Lonnie Holley prep collab album, share first single

Outsider artist Lonnie Holley has teamed up with Spacebomb svengali Matthew E. White for a new collaborative album titled Broken Mirror, A Selfie Reflection that will be out April 9 via Spacebomb/Jagjaguwar. You can listen to the album’s opening song, “This Here Jungle of Moderness/Composition 14,” below.

The album was born out of instrumentals White had recorded with seven musicians at Richmond, VA’s Montrose Recording, which were loose, improvisational and inspired by Miles Davis’ Electric Miles. Those recordings stayed on the shelf for a year but after White and those same musicians backed Holley at a 2019 concert in Richmond, he knew what to do. From the press release:

White sat with Holley and played bits of two-dozen edits from those year-old recordings. Holley listened to 20 seconds and either passed or proclaimed the images that the sounds conjured. When he liked something, he’d consult a notebook overflowing with lyrical conceits, then sing complete first takes to music he’d never heard. White sat gobsmacked, transfixed by Holley’s ability to anticipate modulations and movements within these totally new productions. For four hours, Holley sang of trips into space and troubles with social media, of the need to reconnect with our basic humanity and to disconnect from the baseness of it. Minus modest edits and slight overdubs, Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection was finished on the spot, a lightning strike looking for a place to land.

“We are in a time where we need healing,” says Lonnie. “We are in a time where we need truth. I think that’s what this music is all about.” White adds, “Lonnie channels this music to articulate sensitive and powerful truth that is a formidable commentary on modern society.”

You can pre-order Broken Mirror, A Selfie Reflection now and check out the album art, tracklist and listen to “This Here Jungle of Moderness/Composition 14” below.

Lonnie Holley’s 2017 album MITH featured Laraaji, Richard Swift, Anna & Elizabeth, Shahzad Ismaily, and more.

Broken Mirror, A Selfie Reflection tracklist:
1 This Here Jungle of Moderness/Composition 14 (7:19)
2 Broken Mirror (A Selfie Reflection)/Composition 9 (10:03)
3 I Cried Space Dust/Composition 12 (3:53)
4 I’m Not Tripping/Composition 8 (8:45)
5 Get Up! Come Walk with Me/Composition 7 (8:43)