Grouper Shares Brilliant, Spellbinding New Track “Call Across Rooms”
From her seriously anticipated forthcoming album Ruins on Kranky.
Grouper makes hummingly sentient music. While it comes across as deliberate and precise—its power of focus is undeniable—there is a commanding effortlessness to her sound, an off-the-cuff feel which is shocking considering how good it is. It seems like she has this art at her fingertips 24/7 and just sits down to record when she feels like it, and that’s probably true. Indeed, “Call Across Rooms” has the unprocessed feel of a demo, but it is kind of a perfect song—in the tradition of folk-style laments, but with that ineffable Grouper touch, that beguiling mixture of light and dark tones and textures. It's perfectly short, and seemingly about one thing: the challenge of communicating from a distance, whatever that distance may be. She sings, I have a present to give you, when we finally figure it out, at a glacial pace, with an enunciation just in-between cerebral removal and deliberate, involved intention. Here's to counting the days until October 31st when her new album Ruins comes out.
