After three consecutive full albums, Atlanta-based experimental and moody lo-fi artist Thomas Howard, better known as Orchid Mantis, has decided to release two small collections of songs. The first one, light as leaving, compares life to a series of movings and leavings. Following up on the Josh Augustin-assisted lead single “Where You Are“, Howard is back with “No One Else Around”, a forlorn and existential track that actually deals with loneliness, loss, and isolation; the consequences of this constant movement. Listen below.

Orchid Mantis, the experimental and lo-fi pop solo recording project of Atlanta’s Thomas Howard, has just announced the release of light as leaving, the first of two small collections of songs written and recorded after his 2018’s album yellow house. About these four new tracks, he detailed:

[su_quote]this phase of living is a constant process of moving and leaving. moving in and out of homes, working different jobs. many of the people i’m closest with are gone much of the year. everything can feel weightless and transitory when that kind of permanence is absent. but then, i feel like that’s something you look back on with intense nostalgia later in life, everything is weird that way.[/su_quote]

He has also shared a hazy Joseph Skillas-directed video for “Where You Are”, a track that also features indie artist Josh Augustin of Vansire. Watch below.

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