Loma

A trio formed in the Lone Star State, Loma pair overcast post-rock with bucolic and Baroque indie pop/rock in nuanced fashion. After delivering a 2018 eponymous debut and moodier 2020 follow-up (Don't Shy Away) that edged toward the pastoral and Baroque, the gloomier and more muscular How Will I Live Without a Body? arrived in 2024. The seeds of Loma were sown in 2015 when Shearwater percussionist Thor Harris missed his regular gig to collaborate with Austin duo Cross Record on Wabi-Sabi, their debut album for Ba Da Bing. Knowing that Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg would be interested in what Harris had been up to during his absence, label boss Ben Goldberg sent him a CD of the album. Meiburg, impressed by the young band’s music, invited them to tour with Shearwater, during which he became close friends with the duo of Emily Cross and Dan Duszynski; they decided to write some songs together. Excited at what they had come up with, the trio recorded an album at Cross Record’s isolated home studio in the tiny town of Dripping Springs, Texas. The resulting material was released under the name Loma by Shearwater’s label Sub Pop in early 2018. Preceded by the haunting single “Black Willow,” the album incorporated elements from both its parent bands while indisputably creating its own sound. A second release that same year, The Rind in Your Mind, focused on guided meditation. Returning in mid-2020, Loma issued the spectral single “Ocotillo,” which appeared on the group’s sophomore full-length effort, Don't Shy Away, later that year. Its more expansive palette featured instruments like harp, trombone, and flute, and none other than Brian Eno contributed synths, drum programming, and production to the track “Homing.” Without eschewing acoustic textures, they turned up the volume and fortified atmospheres on the more cinematic How Will I Live Without a Body? released on Sub Pop in mid-2024. An album that almost didn’t happen due to members scattering across the globe with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic (Cross, a U.K. citizen, to Dorset and Meiburg to Germany, while Duszynski remained in central Texas), it found them reconvening in early 2023 with the influence of their respective physical locales undeniably in tow. In addition to its heavier sound, components like a German percussion ensemble, Texas owls, and the crashing waves of Dorset’s Chesil Beach all made appearances on the album. ~ John D. Buchanan & Marcy Donelson