Erin Durant

Erin Durant announces her new album, Firetrail, out May 16th on Ruination Record Co., and presents the lead single/video, “If Love Had A Name.” Produced by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio, Firetrail was recorded during the summer pandemic lull of 2021 at Sonic Ranch, a studio outside of Tornillo, Texas right on the U.S./Mexico border. Building on the experimental leanings of her last album Islands (also produced by Kyp Malone), Firetrail pushes even further in this direction, opening the soundscape to synthesizers and full orchestral percussion, giving tracks a broad palette. The personnel also expanded, with Jared Samuel on bass and NYC improv heavy hitters Robbie Lee and Stuart Bogie contributing wind instruments to several tracks. Additional recording took place at Four Foot Studios in NYC and Firetrail was mixed by Gabriel Galvin in 2023.

Firetrail, Durant’s third album is her most lush, bittersweet and cinematic to date — each track feels like its own liquid film, orchestrated with widely varied textures and instrumentation supporting Durant’s ethereal yet confident vocals. With Firetrail, Durant’s songwriting continues to evolve in surprising ways, mixing honesty and vulnerability with somewhat surreal imagery. Lead single “If Love Had A Name” is a gliding piano and synth-driven love song accompanied by Durant’s ethereal, yet confident vocals. She sings: “If love had a name / I would call it yours / And love you came around my door / And changed my life / For sure.”

Firetrail soars with Durant’s velvety soprano voice and her evocative, dreamlike  storytelling. The title itself alludes to the record’s shape, as Durant says, “The firetrail to me is symbolic and metaphorical, but also like a real place, a portal… You can look up at the stars and then you can go to all these different places of time and emotion and love. Although ultimately it is a solitary journey…” Firetrail is her most evocative and masterful recording yet.