Two expansive acoustic improvisations recorded in a mountainside cabin. A tactile, wordless dialogue between a guitar, wind chimes, and the surrounding forest.
It's like sitting in a quiet cabin while someone practices guitar in the next room.
A profound, meditative stillness that feels both lonely and deeply comforting.
Released simultaneously with its companion vocal album 'songs', 'instrumentals' represents Adrianne Lenker's most radical move toward minimalism. Recorded in April 2020 in a one-room cabin in western Massachusetts, the album consists of two long-form pieces: 'music for indigo' and 'mostly chimes'. The former was originally conceived as a lullaby for a friend, featuring a collage of acoustic guitar improvisations that Lenker edited together to maintain a fluid, dream-like state. The latter is a 21-minute immersive soundscape dominated by the organic clatter of wind chimes and the ambient sounds of the forest. The album was captured on an 8-track tape machine by engineer Philip Weinrobe, emphasizing a 'dry' and 'honest' sound that rejects digital artifice. Critically, it was lauded for its ability to transform the mundane sounds of a living space into a high-art ambient experience, further cementing Lenker's reputation as a generational talent in the folk tradition.
Put this on for
morning light hitting the dust motes while the kettle boilsthat heavy silence when the rain finally stopswatching wind chimes move without making a sound yetfirst page of a new journal and nothing to saybare feet on cold wood floors before the house wakesstaring at the treeline until the shapes blursolitary walk where you forget you have a phone
Moments worth waiting for
The transition into the gentle, rhythmic clatter of wind chimes that closes out the first track.
The audible creak of the chair and the player's breath becoming a rhythmic element against the guitar strings.
Moments where the guitar melody dissolves into pure bird song and ambient forest noise.
Sounds like
2020s production with a 2020s soul
Sits beside
Visions of Green - William Tyler, Seven Psalms - Paul Simon, New Moon - Elliott Smith, The Lost Sky - Jesca Hoop
