High Places sounds like a secret garden hidden inside a Brooklyn apartment. Their music is a delicate balance of organic textures and digital manipulation, where household objects like mixing bowls and bells are transformed into rhythmic foundations. Mary Pearson's vocals float over these intricate patterns like a cool breeze, never forcing a melody but rather weaving through the dense foliage of Rob Barber's production.
What makes them truly distinctive is their 'exquisite corpse' approach to composition. You can hear the dialogue between the two artists in every track: a sudden shift in percussion or a surprising field recording of ocean waves that feels both spontaneous and meticulously placed. It is folktronica that leans heavily into the 'folk' of everyday life, using the sounds of the world to build something entirely otherworldly.
Start with their self-titled 2008 debut. It captures the duo at their most essential, showcasing how they can turn a simple glockenspiel line and a muffled beat into a panoramic emotional experience. It is the perfect entry point for anyone who loves music that feels handmade, intimate, and endlessly curious.
High Places is a band originating from Brooklyn, New York, that subsequently relocated to Los Angeles, California. The band is a duo comprising multi-instrumentalist Rob Barber and vocalist Mary Pearson. Pearson and Barber met while Mary was completing a music degree in bassoon performance at Western Michigan University and Rob was working in visual art, teaching lithography and etching in New York. Both were performing as solo musicians at the time, Mary as Transformation Surprise, and Rob as the Urxed. The two began collaborating under the name High Places in May 2006, after Mary relocated to New York. High Places, has performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art the New Museum and The Kitchen in New York City. They have performed at the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden as part of Doug Aitken's SONG 1 (2012) in Washington DC. In Berlin, they have performed via Volksbühne and Berghain's main room. With Lucky Dragons they have performed collaboratively in the group's 2008 Whitney Biennial performance, as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and REDCAT. Rob has played drums in the Boredoms' 88 Boadrum Los Angeles LACMA performance, and performed as part of the Doug Aitken-curated Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 2010 benefit. High Places have toured with Toro Y Moi, Deerhunter, Liars, No Age, Lucky Dragons, Yacht, Dan Deacon and Xiu Xiu High Places’ self-titled debut was recorded by Rob and Mary in their apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood between January and May 2008.
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