Low's Alan Sparhawk will release a self-titled album—and his first full-length work since the 2022 death of his wife and bandmate Mimi Parker—this fall, according to a profiles inside The New Yorker. The record is set to be titled White roses, oh my god. Sparhawk said it will rely on experiments with improvised guitar, pitch-shifted vocals and a preset synthesizer timed to a drum machine. “I mess with that stiff stuff,” he told interviewer Justin Taylor. “There were times when it quickly became very visceral, very spontaneous. You have created the structure for it to happen and come through you, but you trust the universe for what is to come.”
Since Parker's death from ovarian cancer, Sparhawk has been performing, and occasionally recording, in the Derecho Rhythm Section, a band that includes his and Parker's son, Cyrus Sparhawk, on bass and some songs. (Their production to date is collected on Bandcamp.) Details of staff and other arrangements for White roses, oh my god they remain hidden.
Sharon Van Etten, Perfume Genius and Phoebe Bridgers paid tribute to Low in side quotes throughout the interview. Etten said, of Low's music, “I could feel their love and their pain.” Michael Hadreas of Perfume Genius noted the band's “anthemical quality”, adding, “There was a warmth to it. But it was also very confusing. The music is kind of fucked up. And dark. This comforts me, that all of these exist at the same time.” Bridgers acknowledged being influenced by Lowe's “sparseness, which lets people fill in the blanks, feel something that isn't immediately delivered to them.” That Parker performed while pregnant, she added, positioned her as a role model. “That excites me,” Bridgers said. “That image really sticks in my mind.”
Read the full profile at The New Yorker.
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