Mabe Fratti and Bill Orcutt are releasing a collaborative album, Almost Waking.
Spanning eight tracks, the record sees Fratti provide vocals and cello, and Orcutt play guitar. Their collaboration came about after the former praised the latter’s work in an article. Fratti revealed in a press release that she’d been a fan of Orcutt’s work since the release of his self-titled 2017 album.
“I connected a lot with his music and I had no idea that years later we would be collaborating, Fratti said. “It was a total surprise that we started chatting on the internet about collaborating! We bounced ideas back and forth, all starting with a series of guitar solo stuff that Bill sent me.”
Working alongside her Titanic bandmate I. La Catolica in Mexico City, they tried to “decipher the harmonic possibilities of Bill’s ideas and very carefully develop some good melodies that followed the guitar correctly. The vocal melodies also followed the same principle of trying to get tight with Bill’s initiatives.”
Writing on social media, Orcutt said: “A couple years ago Mabe Fratti made the mistake of mentioning my name in a list of her favourite albums. Without shame or dignity, I immediately sent an email proposing a collaboration. I knew about her because [Orcutt’s longtime collaborator Chris] Corsano played with her and said she’s incredible. Mabe and I worked together for almost a year trading files remotely and the experience was amazing – Mabe was super creative, open, encouraging, an amazing player and just crazy smart.”
Listen to Almost Waking‘s two opening cuts, the title track and ‘El Inicio es cuestión de suerte’, below.
Unheard Of Hope will release Almost Waking on 22 May 2026.
