Itasca‘s new album Spring is due out next week, and today Kayla Cohen shares a final advance listen of the record, via new single and video “Only a Traveler.” Going along with Spring‘s overarching story of escaping Los Angeles for the quiet meditation of rural New Mexico, Cohen says “Only a Traveler” “describes the conflict between the city mindset and the desire to walk out onto the furthest mesa untethered.”
Cohen directed the video, shot on Super 8 in both California and New Mexico. “It’s influenced heavily by the opening sequence in Heart of Glass, the film by Werner Herzog, which shows blurred scenes of Bavaria, Germany and Yellowstone National Park, against a soundtrack by Popul Vuh,” she says. “Heart of Glass was a ‘visual key’ for my understanding of how video can interface with music. In the case of ‘Only a Traveler,’ I hope the viewer can allow and enter a meditative state, to contemplate the slow movement and soft colors of the film.”
Spring is out November 1 on Paradise of Bachelors and features contributions from James Elkington, Chris Cohen, and members of Bitchin’ Bajas, Gun Outfit, and Sun Araw. It also features the previously released singles “Lily” and “Bess’s Dance,” praised as “a beguiling rumination” by The Fader.Spring is available for pre-order from Paradise of Bachelors and elsewhere.
