Petals embodies a deepening, as the quintet dives into themes of loss and rebirth, time and memory, love unbound by body or farewell. But this is not an album about despair or darkness; it’s a thanksgiving and a prayer for what endures and returns.

The music maintains its roots in American and Celtic songcraft, but on Petals, the band achieves a compositional maturity that, in moments, can evoke the modern classical ensemble. Eclecticism, though a key feature of their sound, has never been the point. For these multi-instrumentalists, these singers and writers, sound and song serve one another: the play between instrumentation, composition, emotion and restraint is an organic unfolding.

Petals was produced by Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Lake Street Dive, Langhorne Slim) mixed by Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse, Josh Ritter) and recorded at the Great North Sound Society in Parsonsfield, ME and The Studio at eTown Hall in Boulder, CO.

“This record has a lot of space—an honoring of silence juxtaposed with some really intense moments. Recording Petals was all about breaking musical patterns and sonic recipes that we have been using for our previous records. Sam Kassirer helped us hear sounds and arrangements that we might not have heard if left to our own devices. It was really about broadening our tool kit. Petals is an adventurous album, where we went places we’ve never been before, which is exactly what an artist yearns for.”

—Daniel Rodriguez

“There are some songs with a lot of different layers, from gritty string parts with a giant concert bass drum to ambient or edgy amp sounds with found objects like chains for percussion, and then there are some songs that are very stripped down and vulnerable with really raw vocals and intimate instrumentation. The new addition of pedal steel and cello, and the nature of some of the songs chosen, brought a sense of uncharted territory and welcomed a more exploratory approach.”

—Bonnie Paine