premiere: Indigo Sparke shares a gorgeous lullaby from her Adrianne Lenker co-produced debut album echo
We're honored to premiere the achingly beautiful and heart-wrenching new lullaby from Australian singer and songwriter Indigo Sparke, taken from her stunning forthcoming debut album echo, which she produced with Adrianne Lenker and Andrew Sarlo. Lenker says that Sparke's "writing and voice are ethereal and angelic and guide me through internal canyons and plains" (Lenker made her own glowing lullaby for Sparke not too long ago), and she contributes haunting backing vocals to "Baby", which feels impossibly intimate and vast at once, like a cherished secret that, once shared, becomes universal truth. The song gently blooms from fragile whisper into a transcendent, celestial beacon thanks to Sparke's poignant lyrics and exquisite voice, along with atmospheric synth from Lenker's Big Thief bandmate James Krivchenia, and twinkling glockenspiel from Nick Hakim. In elegantly explaining the impetus behind the song, Sparke mentions the actual physical ache that often accompanies love and longing:
"I think love is quite sadly beautiful and haunting, to be at the mercy of the tides of love, to let it turn you inside out and distill you into something magnificent or strip you bare. I think this song came from dreams and endless love letters sent back and forth across oceans in the forms of songs. So much hope and fear and a burning star shining with just that one persons image... and the lullaby, there is only love. Sometimes it feels like you are canoeing in the river in the sky searching for this person who truly sees you and sometimes it comes along in the most unexpected ways. It can feel so achy. The longing."
It's no coincidence that Lenker's own incredible recent release, songs, also explores these heartbreaking and beautiful themes of immense love and loss, as both works were seemingly born from a shared experience. And in the same vein as songs like "zombie girl" and the previously alluded to "music for indigo", "Baby" feels like an overwhelmingly emotional and touching tribute to what Lenker refers to as "a very special space and time" the two will always share together. echo is out January 29, 2021. Listen below + pre-order here.