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Outside of classical and Celtic music, the harp isn\u2019t widely heard. But in the hands of Asheville native Mary Lattimore, the massive, stringed acoustic instrument has become the centerpiece of a body of work that moves beyond those styles and into indie-experimental regions.<\/p>\n
Lattimore is carrying on a family tradition. Her mother, Lelia Lattimore, spent decades as a harpist with the Asheville Symphony and is the founding director <\/span>of the esteemed Blue Ridge Harp Ensemble. \u201cI grew up playing with my mom at the Biltmore Estate and the Grove Park Inn,\u201d Lattimore recalls.<\/p>\n She studied with Charlotte Symphony harpist Elizabeth Ross and received conservatory training at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. Lattimore\u2019s early education on the harp immersed her in the world of classical music, but her ambitions took her well beyond that idiom. \u201cI moved to Philly in 2005 and got to know a lot of people in bands,\u201d she explains. Some of those people were and remain key figures in the indie and underground rock communities: Kurt Vile and Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs among them.<\/p>\n \u201cThey encouraged me to write for bands and to include the harp into the psych-folk music that was happening around Philadelphia,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that led me to playing with Thurston Moore.\u201d Lattimore played on the Sonic Youth guitarist’s third solo release, 2011\u2019s critically lauded Demolished Thoughts<\/em>.<\/p>\n Working with Moore helped push Lattimore even further from the rigid world of tightly composed classical music. \u201cThurston really encouraged me to improvise,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Her introduction to Moore and other experimental musicians <\/span>encouraged her to pursue more of her own ideas. \u201cIt built up my confidence about writing my own parts, improvising and leaning less on reading music,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Lattimore released her solo debut, The Withdrawing Room<\/em>, in 2013. She would follow that with four more albums under her own name, plus three collaborative releases with other indie artists. Most of those projects can be loosely categorized as experimental, but while Lattimore herself has sometimes been pigeonholed as an \u201cexperimental musician,\u201d she doesn\u2019t think that label quite gets at what she does. \u201cI don\u2019t know if [my music] is experimental as much as it\u2019s \u2018doing whatever I want,\u2019\u201d she says.<\/p>\n That mindset helps explain how an instrument like the Theremin found its way onto her 2018 album, Hundreds of Days<\/em>, and its 2020 follow-up, New Rain Duets<\/em>; the latter was named in more than a dozen of that year\u2019s best-of lists in major media outlets, including The New Yorker<\/em> and NPR Music.<\/p>\n Though she has lived and\/or worked extensively in Philadelphia, New York City and \u2014 most recently \u2014 Los Angeles, Lattimore still points to her Asheville upbringing as an influencing factor in her music. \u201cThe natural beauty, the creativity and the bohemian nature of our special town allowed me to dream about things that weren\u2019t obvious or conventional,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She adds that being exposed to so much music as a child led her to live a life in which music is central to both her personal and professional worlds. \u201cGoing to hear the orchestra and having students in our house all the time, the harp felt like a normal part of my childhood,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Her professional life has included soundtrack work; the evocative quality of Lattimore\u2019s instrumental music makes it ideally suited for use in film. In fact, one of her earliest professional endeavors was a major role in The Valerie Project, a Philadelphia-based psychedelic folk band that in 2007 c<\/span>reated an alternate soundtrack<\/span> to a 1970 Czech surreal horror film, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders<\/em>.<\/p>\n More recently, she provided music for a 2021 episode of the Atlas Obscura<\/em> podcast. \u201cIt\u2019s really good for my brain to have someone else\u2019s vision in mind,\u201d she says. \u201cOn my own stuff, I get to express how I feel \u2014 \u2018blah blah blah,\u2019\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cBut with scoring, you\u2019re in service to someone else\u2019s vision, and it\u2019s humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n Lattimore laughs again as she points out that the process often involves some healthy give-and-take. \u201cSomeone\u2019s dying [on screen], so you write the perfect thing in your mind for that,\u201d she explains. \u201cThen the director\u2019s like, \u2018No, this sounds like a very cheerful music box!\u2019 So you have to rethink it, turn it over and polish it. That\u2019s really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Sync licensing \u2014 the business practice of having one\u2019s music chosen for film, television, advertising and even video games \u2014 is often held up as one of the few ways today\u2019s musicians can generate a revenue stream. Lattimore has licensed some of her songs in that manner, placed some of her songs,<\/span> and says she\u2019d love to get more sync opportunities to help make up for the minuscule revenue that streaming provides. \u201cAs a 44-year-old woman, I\u2019m picturing myself 20 years from now, touring with an 85-pound harp,\u201d she says with a wan smile. \u201cIt would be nice to have different avenues [for income].\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, Lattimore\u2019s music earns widespread critical acclaim and finds popularity on those minimally remunerative streaming sites: \u201cOh I Miss Her So,\u201d a 2020 collaboration with Brooklyn chillwave-meets-folk group Holy Hive, has received over 9 million plays on Spotify. Her latest release, 2023\u2019s dark and moody Goodbye, Hotel Arkada<\/em>, has been well received, too. And in keeping with Lattimore\u2019s penchant for creative collaboration, the album features The Cure\u2019s Lol Tolhurst as one of several featured guest artists.<\/p>\n Another tag that\u2019s sometimes applied to the music of Mary Lattimore is “ambient.” And while there\u2019s an ethereal character to much of her music, it\u2019s more engaging than that label suggests. Her upcoming Asheville gig at the laid-back AyurPrana Listening Room might further that preconception, but Lattimore says that she hasn\u2019t even decided what she\u2019ll play at that date.<\/p>\n One thing she will do is talk between songs, helping the audience understand what her instrumental pieces are about. \u201c[I do that] so that it doesn\u2019t just seem like \u2018spa music,\u2019\u201d she says, laughing again. \u201cBecause it\u2019s not just for when you\u2019re doing yoga.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Outside of classical and Celtic music, the harp isn\u2019t widely heard. 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