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Mary Lattimore is a Los Angeles-based harpist who has played on recordings by dozens of indie rock and experimental musicians, in addition to soundtrack work and her own solo releases. She typically augments her graceful harp improvisations with electronic effects, emphasizing the instrument's ethereal qualities while conjuring up fascinating new sonic vistas. She became an in-demand session musician before releasing solo material in 2012. She later collaborated on albums and soundtracks with artists like Jeff Zeigler and Maxwell August Croy, and released music on well-regarded labels like Thrill Jockey and Ghostly International. By 2018, her solo material had begun to incorporate guitar, keyboard, Theremin, and other instruments, with albums like 2020's Silver Ladders augmenting her ambient harp with a wide range of accompanying sounds. Collaboration remained at the heart of Lattimore's work, showing up in the form of joint creations with Growing and Superchunk's Mac McCaughan, as well as contributions from members of Slowdive, the Cure, and others on her 2023 album Goodbye, Hotel Arkada.

Originally from Asheville, North Carolina, Lattimore became known as part of the Philadelphia underground music scene during the mid-2000s. Along with members of psych-folk bands Espers, Fern Knight, and Fürsaxa, Lattimore contributed to the Valerie Project, whose performances and self-titled 2007 album on Drag City provided an alternate soundtrack to the 1970 Czech surrealist film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Following the album's release, Lattimore played harp on albums by Jarvis Cocker, Thurston Moore, Kurt Vile, and numerous others. Her first solo release was a self-titled cassette on the Life Like imprint in 2012. The album was given a wider release the following year, when Desire Path Recordings issued it on vinyl as The Withdrawing Room.

At the end of 2013, Lattimore and frequent collaborator Jeff Zeigler premiered their score to Philippe Garrel's 1968 experimental silent film Le Révélateur. The duo recorded a full-length titled Slant of Light, which was released by Thrill Jockey in 2014. That same year, Lattimore was awarded a grant from Philadelphia's Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. She and Zeigler began touring together in 2015, and they contributed a track to Ghostly International's Ghostly Swim 2 compilation. Lattimore released a solo cassette titled Luciferin Light on Kit Records that year, and the LP At the Dam appeared on Ghostly in March 2016. Four months later, Thrill Jockey issued Lattimore and Zeigler's score for Le Révélateur, and the duo performed at screenings of the film throughout the United States and Europe. Also that summer, Constellation Tatsu issued Terelan Canyon, her collaboration with En's Maxwell August Croy.

In 2017, Lattimore issued And the Birds Flew Overhead, a collaboration with keyboardist Elysse Thebner Miller, as well as Collected Pieces, an album of compositions previously only available on her music streaming pages. Following her relocation to Los Angeles, Lattimore recorded Hundreds of Days, her most expansive, detailed solo work to date. Ghostly International released the album in May 2018. In November, she and fellow Philadelphia native Meg Baird issued the collaborative offering Ghost Forests on Three Lobed and toured Western Europe and the U.K. Along with extensive touring that included dates with Deerhoof and Iceage, Lattimore also found time to collaborate with Merge Records and Superchunk mainstay Mac McCaughan on instrumental sessions that paired her harp with McCaughan's synthesizers. These improvised sessions resulted in the duo's New Rain Duets album, released on Three Lobed in March 2019. In October of 2020, Lattimore worked again with Ghostly International for the release of her studio album Silver Ladders; it was recorded by Slowdive's Neil Halstead at his home studio after he and Lattimore had met at a festival they both played at. Halstead and Lattimore's collaborations on the album included fleshing out previously existing demos and improvising together on new material. Collected Pieces II appeared in 2021, as well as Collected Pieces: 2015-2020, a condensed version of the two releases. Lattimore additionally collaborated with Growing on a release titled Gainer. In 2022, Lattimore released her cover version of Bill Fay's "Love is the Tune" as part of a series of Fay covers that included renditions from Kevin Morby, Julia Jacklin, and Steve Gunn. 2022 also saw the release of West Kensington, a hazy and psychedelic collaborative album from Lattimore and Philadelphia guitarist Paul Sukeena.

Lattimore's next proper solo set was Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, released in October 2023 by Ghostly International. The six-song album found Lattimore expanding her instrumentation and compositional reach yet again, as well as inviting collaborations from Meg Baird, Roy Montgomery, the Cure's Lol Tolhurst, Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, and others. ~ Paul Simpson

American musician Laraaji is one of new age's most distinctive, prolific, and charismatic artists. A master of multiple instruments, he primarily constructs his lengthy, meditative soundscapes from an electronically altered zither, hammered dulcimer, kalimba, synthesizers, piano, and other instruments, as well as natural sounds and vocals. Since first gaining exposure in the early '80s after a chance meeting with ambient innovator Brian Eno, who produced the landmark release Ambient 3: Day of Radiance (1980), Laraaji has released countless cassettes and albums, ranging from the mantra-like synth pop of Vision Songs, Vol. 1 (1984) to the extended drones of 1987's Essence/Universe. Additionally, he has collaborated with several electronic, experimental, rock, and dub musicians, including Japanese dub crew Audio Active (The Way Out Is the Way In, 1995), Bill Laswell (Divination's Sacrifice, 1998), and Philadelphia duo Blues Control (FRKWYS Vol. 8, 2011). On solo efforts like 2017's Sun Gong and 2020's Sun Piano and Moon Piano, he focuses on playing a single instrument. He has continued to reissue and unearth older material with releases such as the 2023 box set Segue to Infinity, and to release collaborations like Baptismal (with Kramer). In addition to his musical career, he is well-known for his Laughter Meditation Workshops.

Laraaji was born Edward Larry Gordon in Philadelphia in 1943. While growing up in New Jersey, he studied several instruments as well as vocals, and he attended Washington, D.C.'s Howard University on a music scholarship. He then moved to New York City with the intention of making a living as an actor and comedian. He began to study Eastern mysticism, which would change the course of his life. He found a zither at a local pawn shop and experimented with it, developing a unique sound through electronic enhancement and unconventional playing techniques. He released his first album, Celestial Vibration, under his own name in 1978 on a small label called SWN, and began busking on New York City sidewalks and in parks. Brian Eno happened to come across one of his performances and dropped a card into his instrument case. This led to Eno producing Gordon's first widely available release, Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, issued on EG Records in 1980. Gordon's first album under the name Laraaji, the LP featured hypnotic, gamelan-like rhythms played on hammered dulcimer, as well as calmer ambient pieces for zither.

As a result of the album's success, Laraaji's compositions became in demand from meditation groups. He released numerous cassette tapes featuring extended, continuously flowing pieces, as well as occasional avant-garde synth pop devotional songs, as on 1984's Vision Songs, Vol. 1. He expanded his spiritual studies, practicing under the tutelage of Swami Satchidananda and Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati. He collaborated with Sound Healers Association founder Jonathan Goldman, who released their Celestial Realms cassette on his Spirit Music label in 1986. Laraaji's next vinyl release was Essence/Universe, produced by Robert Ashman and released on Audion Recording Company in 1987. Laraaji contributed two pieces to Music for Films, Vol. 3, released by Eno's Opal Records in 1988. Another label associated with Eno, All Saints Records, began releasing Laraaji's music in the early '90s, starting with 1992's Flow Goes the Universe, which was co-produced by Michael Brook. Laraaji then participated in supergroup Channel Light Vessel, along with Bill Nelson, Roger Eno, Kate St. John, and Mayumi Tachibana. The quintet released Automatic on All Saints in 1994, followed by Excellent Spirits (without Tachibana) in 1996. During this time, Laraaji also collaborated with Japanese dub group Audio Active on the 1995 album The Way Out Is the Way In, and released Islands, a split CD with Roger Eno recorded live at a music festival in 1989.

Laraaji's solo album Cascade was released by the Relaxation Company in 1997. The following year, Laraaji played zither on Sacrifice, an album by Bill Laswell's ambient project Divination, issued by Meta Records. Laraaji collaborated with Jonathan Goldman again for two more albums, Celestial Reiki (2000) and Celestial Reiki II (2002), both on Spirit Music. He recorded the 2001 album My Orangeness on a farm in Italy, with several local musicians. Laraaji collaborated with Phil Gruber on The Song of Indra, and with Nadi Burton on Sonic Sketches, both in 2006. Otherwise, most of his albums during this decade were self-released solo CD-Rs. Universal Sound (a sublabel of Soul Jazz Records) reissued his debut release Celestial Vibration on CD and LP in 2010.

In 2011, Laraaji's music reached a new audience when he worked with Philadelphia-based experimental rock duo Blues Control, resulting in the eighth volume of RVNG Intl.'s FRKWYS collaborative series. The acclaimed album led to a resurgence of interest in Laraaji's back catalog, and several of his recordings were re-released. In 2013, All Saints packaged Flow Goes the Universe and The Way Out Is the Way In as the double-CD Two Sides of Laraaji, in addition to issuing Celestial Music 1978-2011, a generous anthology of excerpts from his self-released tapes as well as highlights from his more widely known albums and collaborations. A 12" EP of remixes by artists such as Sun Araw and Motion Sickness of Time Travel appeared on All Saints in 2014. In 2015, Leaving Records issued three of Laraaji's early cassettes as All in One Peace, and German label Glitterbeat reissued Ambient 3: Day of Radiance.

In 2016, a collaborative double live album by Laraaji and Sun Araw titled Professional Sunflow was issued by W.25TH, an imprint of reissue label Superior Viaduct. Later in the year, Leaving Records issued Laraaji's 1984 cassette Om Namah Shivaya on orange vinyl, in addition to releasing Be Still and Glow, another triple-cassette package. Two Laraaji releases, Sun Gong and Bring on the Sun, appeared in September 2017. In early 2018, Vision Songs, Vol. 1 was given a wide release for the first time, courtesy of Numero Group. Arrive Without Leaving, a collaboration with Arji OceAnanda and Dallas Acid, appeared on Flying Moonlight Records near the end of the year. Celestial Realms was reissued on vinyl by Morning Trip in early 2019, and the triple-LP The Onrush of Eternity, a dub collaboration with log(m) (aka Legion of Green Men), appeared on Invisible, Inc. around the same time. Laraaji then collaborated with Merz and Shahzad Ismaily on an album titled Dreams of Sleep and Wakes of Sound. He returned to his first instrument with the 2020 solo albums Sun Piano and Moon Piano, both released with additional material as part of the cassette box The Piano Trilogy.

"Infinite Sun," a collaboration with Carlos Niño and Superposition, appeared in 2021. Laraaji and OceAnanda also worked with Christopher Bono's NOUS ensemble, resulting in the full-length Circle of Celebration. The limited cassette All Things Beautiful was released in early 2022, in conjunction with Laraaji's merchandise collaboration with Online Ceramics. He also released an additional EP with log(m) titled A Surplus of Absurdity, as well as Meditation: You Are Relaxed, a release with sound wellness company Endel utilizing AI-generated soundscapes. Segue to Infinity, a vinyl box set containing Celestial Vibration and six additional side-long recordings from the same time period, all taken from previously unheard acetates, was released by Numero Group in early 2023. Baptismal, a collaboration with Kramer described as an ambient symphony, appeared on Shimmy-Disc in June. ~ Paul Simpson