Today, New Orleans artist Dawn Richard and multi-instrumentalist and composer Spencer Zahn have shared the third single ‘Diets’ from their upcoming album, ‘Quiet In A World Full Of Noise’, out October 4th via Merge Records.
‘Diets follows prelude singles ‘Breath Out‘ and ‘Traditions’, and continues the duo’s cerebral foray into sparse ambient-RnB piano compositions. Lyrically, ‘Diets’ is a site of spiritual cleansing. Richard sings with soul-searching clarity of the people in her life she’s able to “drop like calories” in the name of self-preservation.
‘Quiet In A World Full Of Noise’ is the pair’s second album together, following 2022’s ‘Pigments‘. Its creation began in 2023 in upstate New York. Fresh from a break-up, Zahn sat at his piano and poured himself into writing and recording instrumentals. “I wrote all these stream-of-consciousness pieces on piano, and they were eerie, spacious piano tracks,” he says. Six months later, Zahn listened to the recordings again and sent them to Richard who recognised their potential as the next iteration of their creative pairing.
On ‘Quiet in a World Full of Noise‘, Richard traces the origins of her trauma and bares hers soul, her voice clear, unvarnished and raw. On the album’s creation, Richards says: “I went into the studio – I did not write this down – and purged it out, and then I didn’t change anything after it. It was honestly the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Our family has a distorted view of therapy; I’ve had to do a lot of healing on my own. So this was a moment of severe openness, sharing that moment with the world. But again, for some reason, when I work with Spencer, there’s a vulnerability that I tap into that I don’t do with anyone else. And I’m unafraid to try.”
Listen to ‘Diets’ below.
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Photo Credit: Clifford Usher
