Claire Rousay & Gretchen Korsmo – Quilted Lament (Mappa, 2025)
On Quilted Lament, sound designers Claire Rousay and Gretchen Korsmo present a seamless collaboration shaped by shared aesthetics and emotional intuition. Built remotely over exchanged audio files, the album combines ambient electronic music, field recordings, and intimate instrumentation into a cohesive, diaristic whole.
The pair, both former Texas residents with deep roots in the American experimental scene, draw on years of archival material recorded in locations such as Santa Fe, San Antonio, Los Angeles, and Kamakura. Everyday sounds, a friend eating a peach, a baseball announcer, a washing machine cycle, are folded into soft piano passages and layered vocal fragments. These sounds blur the boundaries between memory, environment, and imagination.
Although steeped in personal emotion, “Claire and I are both emo,” Korsmo notes, the album feels quietly transcendent. Hazy and tender, it evokes the sensation of overhearing a private moment or drifting into a half-remembered dream. Rousay and Korsmo’s contributions are so entwined that it’s often difficult to distinguish one from the other, creating a unified soundscape that feels less like a duet and more like a single voice in stereo.
Despite its title, Quilted Lament offers comfort rather than sorrow. It’s a work of intimacy and trust, as reflective as it is immersive.
Releases May 27, 2025.
Composed, recorded, and mixed by Claire Rousay & Gretchen Korsmo.
Mastered by Adam Badí Donoval.
Artwork and design by Maria Rivero González.