Grouper - Grid Of Points
(Kranky)

Liz Harris always finds a way to insert beauty, discordance and space into her recordings as Grouper. Early on, her records were made up of heavily delayed guitars, processed drones and an equally obscured and weightless voice that echoed in the dense atmospheres of beatific records like Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, Way Their Crept and the A I A duo of records.
With her 2014 LP Ruins and her latest record Grid of Points, both out on Kranky, she’s shifted her focus to dramatic breaths of sparse piano and heavenly vocals that while still cosmic and haze-ridden, are now more skeletal. The tracks that make up Grid Of Points were actually recorded shortly after she released Ruins while visiting Wyoming. According to Harris, these were all recorded in a week and a half and are all meant to exist as abbreviated thoughts and intimate vignettes that were constructed as stoic and minimal thought pieces. Harris labels these 7 tracks as, “small texts hanging in space,” and you can hear that in the somber snapshot of “Parking Lot,” the sparse, languid and roomsound-filled “Driving” and the more hopeful lead-off vocal piece, “The Races.”
For the uninitiated, Grid of Points is actually a perfect entry-point into the world of Grouper. The simplicity and minimalism of the record paints a lovely picture of Harris’ worldview and gives you context for her more challenging records that come before it. That, plus it’s also strikingly beautiful. (Dom)
Check out a track here.