When Bodywash set up their gear in a family cabin on Desert Lake in Ontario, sunlight filtering through the trees, the Montreal duo weren’t looking to recreate their studio sound—they were after something more skeletal, more immediate. The result is Desert Lake Session, a double single featuring live versions of “Massif Central” and “No Repair” with nothing but natural light, analog gear, and the quiet hum of the surrounding forest. Now streaming via Light Organ Records, the release trades the band’s signature dense layering for something more exposed and immediate.
Photo: Steve Gerrard
“Massif Central,” one of the standout tracks from the duo’s 2023 album I Held the Shape While I Could, gets a warm, rhythmically adventurous reworking here. Stripped of its studio sheen, the song leans harder into Korg synth textures and the interplay between Decter and Steward’s vocals, letting the bones of the composition breathe. “No Repair” follows a similar path, peeling back the production to expose the song’s dreamlike core. For fans watching the video, there’s a bonus: a bossa nova reinterpretation of “Massif Central” tucked in at the 8:25 mark, available only on YouTube.
The session came together almost by chance. Bodywash were in Kingston, Ontario for a show, the hometown of their drummer Ryan and guitarist Micah, whose family cabin became the recording site. “We decided to try a couple songs for a lake session, recording as the sun was coming in and out of the trees,” the band explained in a statement. “Both songs are heavily layered in the album versions; this was a chance to peel them back and expose the bones a bit, on a Sunday afternoon surrounded by water.”
Since forming in 2014, Bodywash have built a reputation for their ability to merge the digital and the organic, a sound that started in Montreal dorm rooms and evolved through transatlantic collaboration. Desert Lake Session continues that exploration, but with a focus on impermanence and intimacy. It’s a reminder that sometimes the most revealing thing you can do with a heavily textured song is strip it down and let it exist in conversation with its surroundings.
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