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When Big Thief returned last year, their two resulting albums sounded intimately personal and emotionally massive.
She invited her friend and audio engineer Phil Weinrobe out, and they built a makeshift studio.
What more could you need?
The products reflect that simplicity: one album calledsongsand anotherinstrumentals.
But itsinstrumentalsthat truly reflects the circumstances of her quarantine, where Lenker channels her isolation into something beautiful.
Wanna listen to the sound of you blinking / wanna listen your hands soothe, Lenker sings.
Turn to the A-side ofinstrumentals,music for indigo, to practice it.
The ambient noise of Lenkers cabin wood burning and birds singing outside ground you in her environment.
The B-side of the album, mostly chimes, is even more firmly rooted than music for indigo.
Like the other instrumental, it begins with Lenkers guitar, deliberate and circular.
And does it matter?
Would it make the noise any less beautiful?
Or is emptiness actually something beautiful?
She was talking about breaking up with her girlfriend, which inspired much ofsongsandinstrumentals.
Its a question that this lonely year has left many of us with, though.
Then it pulls the beauty from the emptiness what it was full of all along.
