AUSTIN CRANE sounds like a name that folk scene followers have heard for ages, so it’s quite surprising to know that he is just past 30, moving back East after pursuing a PhD in human geography in Seattle. He was born musically at the time of Fleet Foxes’ major success and in a way it’s hard to escape this label.
But “No One Is Missing” is an enthralling single regardless of what it sounds like. Austin’s droning voice has a mesmerizing quality and the arrangements, while showing an obvious inspiration, are no less enticing, with their crystalline guitar strumming and the cathartic feel of winds and voices.
Austin says: “The video for ‘No One Is Missing’ was filmed on Edisto Island in South Carolina’s low country by dustoftheground.
“It’s a lush, isolated place. The beach where we filmed is only accessible at low tide and is full of dead trees.
“I felt like that tidal flow, combined with the generally surreal and outside-of-time quality of the landscape, provided a spatial and visual connection with where ‘No One Is Missing’ is coming from as a song.
I wrote the track as a way of grappling with the partiality and temporality of how we connect with one another, I guess as an attempt to collect and reflect on recent experiences of loss, love, leaving, returning, missing, etc. On that theme, while recent months of social distancing have often felt isolating, I’m continually grateful for how music and the natural world can remind us we’re not alone.”
The single anticipates the new album by Crane as Valley Maker, out on February 19th on Frenchkiss Records.
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