Carson McHone Shares video for new single ‘Idiom’
Carson McHone
Shares video for new single ‘Idiom’
New Album 'Pentimento' out 12th September 2025
"Multi-layered, career-defining fourth." 9/10 Uncut 'Album of the Month'
“Pentimento sees McHone fearlessly blending diverse influences – from guitar rock to pastoral folk, poetry, and field recordings – into a rich tapestry of sound.” - KLOF Mag “Dreamy, sneakily groovy.” - Paste Magazine
With each new single from Carson McHone’s forthcoming album Pentimento, a new element of the project’s staggering scope comes to light. Today, with the release of the McHone-directed video for 'Idiom,' a new layer reveals itself: the first blush of the project that will premiere at the In the Soil Arts Festivalin St. Catherines, Ontario next month. The video, filmed by Daniel Romano during a workshop session for the larger project, features a dance routine from choreographer Allie Blumas, with lighting by theatre director Deanna Jones.
Illustrated by the delicate, starkly-lit articulation of Blumas’ body, “Idiom” is at once an intimate, interior epic and a striking example of the sweeping soundscapes McHone and her collaborators areable to call into being, a folk song dappled by turns towards chamber pop and rushes of stirring harmony.
“All of the songs of Pentimento began as poems against the backdrop of global crisis, national borders, civil unrest, birth, death, bad love, new love, true love. They were written in the desert during spring and summer. There, history and time are visual in the drama of great boulders, in layers on a rockface—the potential and past energy of the ancient sea-floor. Some of these lyrics were written on postcards and in letters. Others began as embellishments on watercolor paintings, or captions for a photograph in a diary, or were written as responses in the margins of a journal to a child, newborn, from a generation past. These “artifacts” from writing/living informed what would eventually become material for his record."
"Later, beside the ocean, and during the first snow of the season, a special group of musicians gathered to bring the album to life. While half of the songs were built into place according to a rigorous 'plan,' the other half came together for the first time on this very occasion and were learned and performed live on the spot. Over six days, all of it was captured on an 8-track cassette tape recorder, including fortuitous feedback bass drone, and spontaneous laughter."
- Carson McHone
Tracklist 1. Winter Breaking 2. Abstract Spring 3. Downhill 4. Vision in the Verse 5. In the Summer the Streets Burned 6. Idiom 7. Fruits of My Tending 8. Forbidden Kiss 9. The Canvas 10. Lucentum 11. Wake You Well 12. Triumph of the Heart 13. September So
