Photo: Juniper Mercereau
LA-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and composer Nate Mercereau has announced the release of a new album titled Fantastic Thoughts. Over the years, Mercereau has become a vital presence within a remarkable community of musicians and across a wide range of genres. Alongside his own releases, he has collaborated extensively with Carlos Niño adn Surya Botofasina, contributed to André 3000’s acclaimed New Blue Sun, and worked as a producer, songwriter and musician with artists including Sade, Lizzo, Leon Bridges, Jay-Z, A$AP Rocky, The Weeknd and many others. Mercereau has also continued to develop his own approach to composition and improvisation through a wide range of solo and collaborative releases, including digi-squires with Sam Gendel, the trio albums Subtle Movements and Free, Dancing . . . with Surya Botofasina, Carlos Niño and Idris Ackamoor, and his ongoing contributions to Carlos Niño & Friends releases since 2020. Across this incredible and diverse body of work, he has been expanding his approach to the guitar, placing the instrument at the heart of his compositions.
Mercereau’s forthcoming record is a celebration of imagination, creative freedom and the possibilities that emerge when musical ideas are are allowed to unfold. Fantastic Thoughts finds Mercereau exploring what he calls “Active New Reality Progressive Fusion”, a space where composition, improvisation, experimentation and feeling come together. A record full of ideas and influences, it draws from disparate genres, including progressive rock, jazz fusion, electronic experimentation and beyond. Mercereau explains:
“I am in the musical lineage of the great progressive rock band Yes and Jon Anderson, specifically Jon Anderson’s transcendent impressionistic lyrical YES energy, the blazing connectivity of The Mahavishnu Orchestra and John McLaughlin, the heart fire of Jimi Hendrix, the continued exploration of Carlos Santana through all sounds and eras and genres, the experimentation of Robert Fripp and King Crimson, the imagination of Jon Hassell, the playfulness of Squarepusher, the earnestness of Steve Vai, the personal language of Lightning Bolt, the musical sweetness and memorable melody of the Pat Metheny Group and Lyle Mays, the orchestration of Stravinsky and Zappa, the lyrical guitar playing of Jeff Beck, the possibilities of Brian Eno, the heart-fire originator Tisziji Muñoz … among everything else I’ve ever heard or felt, these things stand out to me right now as other music I am related to.”
Fantastic Thoughts arrives on September 11th through Leaving Records and ahead of it, Mercereau has unveiled the album’s radiant and jubilant title track. Here it is.
