Grouper's music exists between the hues of memory, reflected in quiet swirls of guitar and Liz Harris' voice. Her most recent album, 2014's Ruins, stripped away much of the ambiance (to chilling effect) and played with environment as an instrument.
Released on the winter solstice, the Paradise Valley 7" is a less a return to Grouper's sound than a muted meditation. You can hear the reverb hum at the beginning of "Headache" as Harris' fingers hesitate on guitar strings, almost uncertain of the outcome. In its simplicity — just a moody chord progression strummed languidly — there's a nod to early Low, but the stark melancholy as Harris sighs, "My head hurts," is unmistakably Grouper.
The 7" comes with the poem below; this passage obliquely describes the sound within:
Love uneven. Sound eating at the land,
water whispering, the
absent pattern of your feet.
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