Drowse and Lula Asplund have shared their rendition of Low’s ‘Hey Chicago’, which appears on the Flenser‘s upcoming tribute album to the band, Your Voice Is Not Enough. Check it out below.
‘Hey Chicago’ is taken from Low’s 1997 EP Songs for a Dead Pilot. Drowse’s Kyle Bates shared the following statement about the cover:
Low’s music has had a profound effect on me during many stages of my life. Their final two records still sound decades ahead of our time and have been direct influences on my recent work as Drowse. I first heard Low through their mini-album, Songs for a Dead Pilot, which I picked up as a teenager due to its striking cover art. The music within reflects that desolate cover image, creating a cold atmosphere that I have been chasing ever since. ‘Hey Chicago’ is this short piece of beauty that comes at the end of the album as a balm for the preceding thirty three minutes of sparse, sustained darkness. I thought it fitting to cover the song with Lula Asplund, a Chicago-based sound artist who I play in a duo with. Lula and I saw Low play in Chicago in early 2022, their final year as a band, and it was a performance I will never forget; rest in peace Mimi Parker, you live on in our memories.
Lula Asplund added, “I was excited when Kyle asked me to contribute to this cover because I grew up listening to Low. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen was Low live in Chicago. I was very sad and shocked to hear of Mimi Parker’s passing—weird to realize that that concert in Chicago was the only time I’d ever hear those gorgeous voices together in a room.”
Today, Drowse has also released Overcasts, a collection of four short stories and an essay Bates wrote between 2019 and 2023. The stories ‘Cloud Light Over Obsidian’ and ‘Second Self’ were originally available only with limited editions of Drowse’s Wane into It and Light Mirror.
Your Voice Is Not Enough is due out later this year. So far, it’s been previewed by Planning For Burial’s take on ‘Murderer’ Allison Lorenzen’s cover of ‘Words’.