Mer

Glass Salt—the duo of Caylie Staples and Johann Diedrick—have returned with another half hour of music. Culled from the same improvisational sessions that produced Greetings, the songs on Mer are even less hurried, allowing the pair’s experiments to unspool deliberately. Like its title (French for “sea”) suggests, the songs on Mer are contemplative, meditative and oceanic. “When the Rain Fell / Go Far For Now” seems to ebb and flow like tides, patter like raindrops and pull at Staples’ voice like a current. “The Moon is Beautiful” is spectral, haunting and hypnotic, like staring into a whirlpool. “Currents” opens with a sound like a fog horn and evokes salt water, rust and baleen. While the songs on Mer are more ambient than those on Greetings, fans of Glass Salt will still find the same attention to texture, vocal processing and gentle melody that have characterized the duo’s work thus far. At a time when physical gatherings are fraught, there’s something luxurious about the sound of two musicians in a room, slowly exploring a tonal space together.