Mabe Fratti and Bill Orcutt find wild tenderness on Almost Waking

Mabe Fratti and Bill Orcutt release Almost Waking on 22 May via Unheard of Hope, and the collaboration is one of the day's most exciting experimental items. On paper, the pairing is already fascinating: Fratti, the Guatemalan cellist and art-pop songwriter known for expressive, elastic string work and strange melodic worlds; Orcutt, the veteran guitarist whose history runs from the noise-rock attack of Harry Pussy into decades of fractured, percussive and deeply idiosyncratic solo playing.

Almost Waking grew from remote file-sharing and mutual admiration, but it does not sound like a polite exchange of ideas. It feels like two musicians testing how much pressure, tenderness and friction can fit inside a conversation.

Tracks such as Forced and Forced and Forced and Steps of the Sun let cello and guitar behave almost like voices, sometimes harmonizing, sometimes scraping against each other, sometimes turning a duet into a small collision. Fratti also sings on El Inicio Es Cuestion de Suerte and Todo Puede Ser Error, allowing Orcutt's jagged guitar language to enter more melodic territory.

For an indie and experimental digest, this release matters because it is not a side-project curiosity. It shows two strong musical personalities meeting without either one becoming background. Almost Waking is intimate, thorny and alive, like hearing a private conversation through a wall and realizing it is actually a storm. Source: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/22/mabe-fratti-bill-orcutt-almost-waking-review-unheard-of-hope