Today Cass McCombs has released the new standalone single “The Wine of Lebanon” in partnership with Universal Audio and their new recording system LUNA. Listen to the transcendent song and watch footage of McCombs recording it in UA’s debut LUNA session below…
“ ‘The Wine of Lebanon’ is a song that centers around the line: ‘what can I offer you?’,” McCombs explains. “It is about ritual offerings to the departed and wine as allegory for life. The band comprised of Dan Iead on electric guitar and pedal steel, Frank Locrasto on Rhodes and synth, Noga Shefi on bass, Yoni Shelig on drums and myself on piano.”
McCombs then continued, “they were still writing the code for LUNA in the control room as we were recording, which was thrilling. It felt a little, I mean very little, like being part of the crew of a space shuttle launch. Everyone’s guts were in knots. The ashtrays were overflowing. A nervous nation watched on live television. Families embraced in anticipation, fearing the worst. I jest. The recording went smooth and was a blast to do. We recorded the strings at UA’s studio in Santa Cruz a couple of months later with an arrangement by MAGIK*MAGIK ORCHESTRA.”
The first in a series of upcoming LUNA sessions, multi-GRAMMY winning producer/engineer Jacquire King (Tom Waits, Norah Jones) used LUNA to garner larger-than-life sounds on McComb’s stunning composition. T
“Our goal with LUNA was to inspire musicians, and make it easy to capture creativity when it hits,” said Universal Audio CEO Bill Putnam Jr. “We’re thrilled to deliver on this promise alongside world-class artists like Cass McCombs and Jacquire King, and to give musicians an inside look at their epic recording session.”
