named after a situationist art making technique of letting a combination of chance and one's surroundings shape the form of one's art, marian mclaughlin's new album 'dérive' feels like an un-premeditated ramble and a tightly composed work at the same time. a dérive traditionally involves walking outside, and you don't know what you will see around the next corner as you follow mclaughlin down her weird path. mclaughlin's guitar playing flows like mercury, influenced by classical, folk, and spanish styles, and flourishes of production come and leave from the rooms her songs build, sometimes slinking off and other times getting up and slamming the door. a good and strange album.
get it right here as a digital release or on limited edition vinyl. below, check out a video for the tune 'before you leave'.