Late Sea, “The Great White”

Post Author:

New York’s post/art rock trio Late Sea – comprised of Izzy Gliksberg (vocals, keyboards guitars) Sam Nester (trumpet, laptop) and Joe Peri (drums, percussion) – has been hard at work on their upcoming visual EP, The Writers Trilogy, due out later this year. Says Gliksberg of the work, “The idea of the EP was to create music alongside a visual concept, but it all started with a fantasy to dedicate a song to my favorite writers and to make an album out of it.” We’ve got the debut for their first track off the project, titled “The Great White”. 

The song starts out slowly, soothing, but also has a dark aspect to it. Gliksberg’s vocals are haunting, with a touch of reverb set in front of tranquil, choir-like chanting. The song picks up, but adds to the murky feel with sound bites that sound demonic in their presentation. The horns are an added bonus, giving a layer to their song that you weren’t originally expecting. The composition is stunning and in your face.

Gliksberg had quite a bit more to add about the project.

The song and the video [are] a farewell elegy for my favorite poet Paul Celan. It’s about the transformation of grief into some sort of redemption. Paul Celan’s poetry puts me under a spell. His words are crystalized. My bones glow. This song is our attempt to bring that mystery into our work.

The project was funded by the Kevin Spacey Foundation. The visual EP was inspired by a fantasy I had to dedicate three songs to three different writers who have deeply influenced my life and work. The Great White is the first in the trilogy and is a farewell elegy to Jewish German poet Paul Celan. The song explore grief and how it can mysteriously transform into redemption. We recorded the band and then brought in a chamber choir to our producers studio to do the background singing which is really the foundation of the music. The song has a beautiful music video that will be released in a few weeks.

Keep up with Late Sea here.