Stone Age Is Now: Poems from Lithic

Caleb Nichols returns with Stone Age Is Now: Poems from Lithic, a companion to his book Lithic: A Hyperballad and a follow-up to Stone Age Is Back. Across twelve tracks, he threads poems from the book through songs from the earlier album, giving his indie-rock and alt-folk writing a newly intimate shape.

It is a record about grief, though not in expected ways, looking hard at living and dying in a time of extraordinary change. Working with a first-take best-take approach, Nichols recorded it in five days with engineer Jay Pellicci at Brother’s (Chinese) Recording in Oakland, later adding spoken word in San Luis Obispo.

Field recordings from London, Yns Mon, Gwynedd, Bangor, Glasgow and San Luis Obispo run throughout. Alongside John Metz and Aaron Kroeger, the album features saxophone from Lorenzo Coretese and Welsh translation and performance by Rhys Trimble on Orme Dream At The Car Park. Pellicci mixed, and David Glasebrook mastered.