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Music of the spheres: It is a term that refers to the universal harmony generated by celestial bodies in orbit, but it means something different to Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry. His musical spheres are floating worlds, 360° embodiments of memory, VR renditions of old family photos. A collection of songs that moves across two albums, today Parry has announced that Quiet River of Dust: Vol. 2 will be released on the Summer Solstice, June 21. Listen to and watch the new video for the song Long Way Back.
“ Long Way Back is a song about remembering everything you’ve ever lived. Your childhood home, the happy or heavy or beautiful or miserable feelings you ever lived with, the fleeting and pristine random moments of perfection, the infinitely complex tapestry of emotions you feel towards your parents; anything that resides anywhere in those floating worlds that exist inside your mind and your heart, holding all these things up to the light of memory, embracing it all and then letting it go.”
- Richard Reed Parry
The first volume of Quiet River of Dust was released on the autumn equinox of 2018 and this second volume was created at the same time. It was originally set to come out on the spring equinox but nature had other ideas, as it look longer than expected to wait for salt crystals to grow on the artwork to create wave caps and mountaintops—do not underestimate Parry’s attention to detail.
Both volumes bleed into one another, by design. “It feels like a multi-sided window to me,” says Parry, “a different view into this prismatic song world.” Japanese folk myths, death poems and British folk music are tributaries flowing into a river of late-20th century avant-garde composition and traditional song craft, written and performed by a member of a Grammy-winning rock band. This is a meditative, widescreen musical experience with Beach Boy harmonies and a hypnotic pulse. Layered songs that move in a linear fashion, following a current rather than circular composition.
While the two halves of Quiet River of Dust are meant to represent each side of a metaphysical river, Vol. 2: That Side of the River is more interior, says Parry, dealing with the murky waters of memory and the unconscious mind.
“What separates us from dissolving into the experience around us?” Parry asks. “It’s a feeling I’ve definitely had many times, where the boundaries of self and world are permeable to the point of disorientation. So much of this record is about being this young person in an older people’s world of music and song, this folk music community where the torch is passed, and losing my father at a young age, and being completely disoriented by that. This record, the songs are also referencing that nebulous psychic territory when you lose your most familiar world, when the village of your childhood disappears and you try to relocate yourself in a different one.”
“It's music crying out for careful attention. Songs ebb and flow, and then ebb some more, teasing beauty from Parry's quietly rich, complex compositions … It makes for ravishing music.”
– Under the Radar
“’Quiet River of Dust Vol. 1’ is an enchanted forest of a record-deceptively tranquil, but always buzzing with hidden life. Parry’s other band famously told us of a place where ‘no cars go’. This is what it feels like to actually be there.”
– Pitchfork
Pre-Order / Pre-Save Quiet River of Dust Vol. 2.
RichardReedParry.com
    
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Credit photo: Zachary Hertzman
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