On a Painted Ocean / Walt McClements

By Walt McClements "On a Painted Ocean" (2025) LP.

Stillness can mean peace or stagnation. Walt McClements spent several years grappling with this ambivalent force before completing his album, On a Painted Ocean. Comprised of a series of tracks centered around accordion and pipe organ, the album is a sonic journey that unfolds slowly but surely on gentle waves of emotion.

The album's title is taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's epic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and derives from the description of a ship drifting and stationary on the ocean - "a picturesque, motionless ship on a picturesque, still sea."