Walt McClements - On a Painted Ocean

April 2025 Record of the Month.

On a Painted Ocean finds Walt McClements navigating the line between calm and inertia, shaping a set of deeply expressive pieces led by accordion and pipe organ. Drawing its name from Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the album echoes the image of a ship becalmed at sea — suspended, yet heavy with emotion and movement beneath the surface.

McClements began work in 2022 after gaining access to a Pasadena church organ. But the process was anything but linear. Time spent on the road with Weyes Blood and limited recording gear led him to reinvent earlier sketches, layering synths with reworked accordion textures. That sense of adaptation pulses throughout the record, from the raw tones of “A Painted Ship” to the distorted drift of “Washed Up,” and the euphoric shimmer of “Clattering.”

A return to New Orleans — a city long central to McClements’ life — reignited the project. With contributions from friends and collaborators, including Rachika Nayar and Aurora Nealand, the album took on new life. Their influence can be heard in the ambient layers of “Sirens” and the brass swells of “Parade,” the latter woven with field recordings and rising with cathartic intensity.

Reflective and resilient, On a Painted Ocean is an album about movement within stillness, and the quiet strength of creative community.