Jordannah Elizabeth Graham-Mayer presents 'The Warmest Low' trilogy
At home with the transcendent and expressive multidisciplinary artist Jordannah Elizabeth Graham-Mayer; press photo courtesy of the artist.
The resonance from creative inception can create ripples out into the world that take on the new forms of various mediums. Through the passage of time ideas can slowly expand and grow like a tree in a forestall community of arboreous living entities, centers that seek to ascend by the aid of photosynthesis and branches that extend like arms that bud flowers, sporting leaves like hands that can hold fruit or extend towards the natural world in a gesture of an evocative embrace.
This developing journey is heard and felt on Jordannah Elizabeth Graham-Mayer’s The Warmest Low (Single Two). Beginning a decade ago with The Warmest Low (Single One), Jordannah has further developed it into into a multimedia expanding concept for film, literature, and an ever-evolving framework of intimate expression. These works offer reflections on the nature and powerful forces of memory, the resonance of emotional connections, and perspectives that operate from the humble core of the heart that holds tight to a notion of humanity with an unyielding sense of perpetual endearments.
The Warmest Low (Single Two) begins with the tranquil "Patience" that sets adrift on the infinite seas and eternal skies. Jordannah carefully arranges the sentiment of floating through the atmospheric airs of see-sawing stratospheres to sailing down the tributaries that connect past, present, and all the adventures and intrigue that may arrive just around the bend. The softly rocking rhythms and quaint choral delivery wades into the serene seas of meditative thought, softly speeding at relaxing nautical knots that ponders the curious persistence in how love binds in the most bewildering, inexplicable, and all but ineffable ways.
"Just For You" graciously strums guitar strings and gently touches the keys with a romantic reverence that Jordannah delivers with an uninhibited adoration. Fixations that dwell on the subject of the heart's desire sway like flowers in the breeze atop a lush green hillside, with the feeling of a Sunday morning that you never want to end as time taps and ticks its way into the entrance halls of evening. "You" is a loving embrace of the love that we find with another that feels sacred, and unlike anything comparable with anything else. "Just For You" is a sweet surrender, an amorous abandon into the arms of a beloved that provides an abundance that exceeds the limitations of our comprehension alone.
Bridging together recordings from 2010 to the mid-2020s; Jordannah provided the following insights on creative collaborations and the manner by which the songs themselves have changed from their initial recording, to being released into the world:
The last time I spoke to you, I had released Borders (Live) where I was sitting with my music director, Miles Gannett and we were going through songs to rework. I remembered I had an epiphany about Borders.
This time, I was buying time, thinking about time and wanting to find songs that had a quality that held up to The Warmest Low (Single One). So, this time around, it wasn’t about time being a collaborator in a specific manner, it was about aligning the music with (Single One).
I wanted to continue my work on The Warmest Low — a chapbook series, a music series and a scripted series. I like columns, series, continuations, growth, the discipline of keeping with a project over many years, so this felt right.
Jordannah provided further insights on the The Silver Lake bungalow sessions with Marika Tjelios, and the specific sonic and geographic memories of Los Angeles at the time, and how the environment shaped the recordings’ own emotional tone:
My first big Makeshivt Kity release, Los Angeles EP was released in 2007, and labels were very interested. I moved out to Los Angeles from Denver, and began shopping. Things were going alright, but soon into it, I had some tragedy, and the economic crash occurred. This wasn’t the biggest issue: I went back to Colorado and released The Holy Implant, and the labels said it was too weird. A netlabel, Trastienda took me on, but I decided to turn the discouragement into fuel, met Marika and wrote three songs to create a single called Patience under the name Jordannah Elizabeth.
It was my first solo release, and I prided myself in working with a woman producer. She was brilliant and had every instrument you could think of in her house. We sat for a weekend, and the bonus song on 10th Anniversary was track two, and on (Single Two), Patience was track 1 and “Just for You” was track three.
Silverlake and Echo Park were in a heyday, when The Warlocks, BRMC, Dead Meadow, Miranda Lee, and all sorts of bands were beyond burgeoning. I was inspired by those bands for the Holy Implant, but I think I toned it down, and really looked to Elliott Smith, Ryan Adams, Jill Scott, Miranda, the subtlety of Tess Parks and so on.
I have some old collaborators who I jammed with 20 years ago, I’m excited to work with: Qiana Glaze, and Breck Brunson (A Rush and Borders) and Miles Gannett (Borders (Live), bandleader and music director) will work on the upcoming album. I’m shooting for The Changing Colors as well, one of my favorite singer/songwriter projects.
Jordannah Elizabeth’s The Warmest Low (Single Two) is out now.