Mabe Fratti and Bill Orcutt have united for Almost Waking, a new collaborative LP coming via Unheard of Hope on May 22. The Guatemalan cellist and U.S. guitarist have shared a pair of songs, the title track and “El inicio es cuestión de suerte,” which you can hear below.
Fratti said in a press release that she has been a fan of Orcutt since his self-titled 2017 album. “I connected a lot with his music and I had no idea that years later we would be collaborating!” she 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.” She added that her Titanic bandmate I. La Catolica contributed to some songs, as the two of them, working in Mexico City, 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.”
Fratti added, “The idea was to leave a lot of space but in only one of the tracks I just went on with the idea of shamelessly harmonizing the vocals. The album ended up having this nostalgic vibe to it. I am so happy about how it turned out and grateful with the crazy coincidence that made it happen!”
On social media, Orcutt wrote, “A couple years ago Mabe Fratti made the mistake of mentioning my name in a list of her favorite albums. Without shame or dignity, I immediately sent an email proposing a collaboration. I knew about her bc [Orcutt’s longtime collaborator Chris] Corsano played w 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.”
Both reliably prolific, Fratti and Orcutt have both released records in the past year: Fratti the excellent Hagen with Titanic, Orcutt a guitar quartet called Music in Continuous Motion. Read about the former at No. 19 in Pitchfork’s rundown of The Best Albums of 2025.
