{"id":6078,"date":"2018-02-23T10:35:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T15:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=6078"},"modified":"2018-02-24T10:23:49","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T15:23:49","slug":"low-anthem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/02\/23\/low-anthem\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Years After A Calamitous Tour Van Crash, The Low Anthem Return With A Hypnotic Pysch-Folk Album Humming With The Cycles Of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Up past the golden lobby of Providence\u2019s Columbus Theatre, still decorated with vintage posters advertising Verdi&#8217;s &#8220;La Traviata&#8221; and screenings of &#8220;The Song of the Soul&#8221; and Cecil B. DeMille&#8217;s &#8220;Il Massacro dei Cristiani,&#8221; past the doors to the ornate 800-seat hall with its grand murals and soaring proscenium arches, upstairs past the intimate 200-seat concert stage on the mezzanine, past the recording studio booth with its vast mixing board, past the boy getting his first drum lesson, is a large disheveled room arrayed with keyboards and guitars, drums and so many pedals.<\/p>\n<p>The afternoon sun streams in the large windows overlooking Broadway as four members of the Providence band <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lowanthem.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Low Anthem<\/a>\u2014Ben Knox (he sometimes also adds the last name Miller), Jeff Prystowsky, Florence Wallis and Bryan Minto\u2014launch into a rehearsal. A taxidermied deer head watches from a wall above.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDust was only flakes of skin \/ bone of sailor, bone of bird \/ sand was only skeleton \/ bone of sailor, bone of bird,\u201d Knox sings and plays keyboard, accompanied by Prystowsky and Minto on guitar and Wallis on violin. They switch off on instruments. Prystowsky heads to his \u201cmysterious station of sound\u201d (\u201ctubes and crystals,\u201d Knox jokes) and then the keyboard. Wallis plays toy piano. Knox sits at the drums.<\/p>\n<p>The Low Anthem\u2019s new album \u201cThe Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea,\u201d which debuts today, is inspired by a Hindu mystic\u2019s classic fable about the impossibility of trying to put into words what it\u2019s like to embrace the universe\u2019s ultimate reality. The music is filled with mentions of bones and seas, whales and krill, wrecks and sunken empires. They\u2019re songs about transformation\u2014skin to dust, sand to glass\u2014and persistence during nature\u2019s cosmic cycles. Knox sings on \u201cToowee Toowee\u201d: \u201cThe sea we were cut from \/ the sea we will become.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s this element of the journey, the epic journey, the explorer,\u201d Wallis says. \u201cI think the effect of trying to find out the truth of anything is an exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/94U0o4kL6Mk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The music pops and crackles like an old record and warbles like it\u2019s underwater. Something like lonely carnival calliopes or music boxes twinkle and evaporate. The sound is blissful, luminous, dreamy, effervescent, hypnotic.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow with a sold-out <a href=\"http:\/\/columbustheatre.com\/event\/low-anthem-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">album release concert on the Columbus Theatre<\/a>\u2019s 200-seat stage, the Low Anthem will launch a tour that will bring them to the Iron Horse in North Hampton on March 2, Space Gallery in Portland on March 3, ArtsRiot in Burlington, Vermont, on March 4, then to Philadelphia and New York and D.C., a swing through the South and the Midwest, Chicago and Toronto, the UK and Europe, before a show at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bandsintown.com\/e\/21557484?app_id=squarespace-stephanie-seibert-c3x4&amp;came_from=267\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Boston\u2019s Brighton Music Hall on May 22<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activism by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And <a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6092\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6092\" style=\"width: 1170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1110w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6092\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1110w.jpg\" alt=\"The Low Anthem rehearse at Providence's Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)\" width=\"1170\" height=\"794\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1110w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1110w-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1110w-768x521.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1110w-1024x695.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1110w-370x251.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6092\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Low Anthem rehearse at Providence&#8217;s Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The band&#8217;s psychedelic-folk style, which they debuted on their 2016 album \u201cEyeland,\u201d is a departure from the heart-achingly beautiful folk-pop songs and rumbling honky-tonk tunes that swiftly brought the band attention following the release of their 2007 debut album \u201cWhat the Crow Brings\u201d and their 2008 follow-up \u201cOh My God, Charlie Darwin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Low Anthem lineup featuring Knox, Prystowsky and Jocie Adams played the Newport Folk Festival in 2009 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2009\/08\/01\/111366763\/the-low-anthem-newport-folk-festival-2009\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">listen<\/a>). (A number of additional folks have been in and out of the band over the years.) The group appeared on the \u201cLate Show with David Letterman\u201d a number of times beginning in 2010. They toured with Emmylou Harris and Iron &amp; Wine and The Chieftains. They opened for Bruce Springsteen at South by Southwest in March 2012 and joined him on stage there for a giant hootenanny version of Woody Guthrie\u2019s \u201cThis Land Is Your Land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/T4uUUzZO2IM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know the \u2018Darwin \/ Smart Flesh\u2019 material inside and out,\u201d the band announced to their mailing list that September. \u201cMaybe some artists reach this point and become safer more refined imitations of themselves. We\u2019re not interested. So\u2026we\u2019ve decided that this upcoming tour will be the last tour of the chapter. The last tour devoted to this material, this incarnation. \u2026 It\u2019s not the end. There is no end. But it\u2019s the last one for a while. We have too many unfulfilled ideas in the works to stay out on the road. \u2026 But it\u2019s going to take some time back home, to turn the page and build a new sound world. To burn the furniture. To decipher the new questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It took until June 2016 for \u201cEyeland\u201d to arrive. Its long gestation fractured the band. \u201cPeople split off because three years later there was no new record, no new gigs,\u201d Knox tells me when I talk with the band in an Olneyville house that he\u2019s renovating to live in. \u201cSo everyone moved on. Including our business management.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When \u201cEyeland\u201d finally came out, Knox and Prystowsky, who founded the band after meeting as students at Brown University, had been joined by Wallis and Minto. Knox recalls, \u201cOn day five of the tour, after waiting four and a half years to release it, on the first leg of the tour, we smashed the van.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6087\" style=\"width: 1170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0934w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6087\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0934w.jpg\" alt=\"The Low Anthem: From left, Ben Knox, Florence Wallis, Jeff Prystowsky and Bryan Minto, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)\" width=\"1170\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0934w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0934w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0934w-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0934w-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0934w-370x247.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Low Anthem: From left, Ben Knox, Florence Wallis, Jeff Prystowsky and Bryan Minto, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>The Engine Was On Fire <\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cYou&#8217;re gonna lose \/ You have to lose \/ You have to learn how to die \/ Just watching the miles flying by,\u201d went the band Wilco\u2019s song \u201cWar on War\u201d on the radio.<\/p>\n<p>Minto was singing along as he sat at the wheel of the forest green van around midday as the band\u2014plus a videographer\u2014motored down the highway to perform in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6082\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6082\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Van.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6082\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Van-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Low Anthem's van after the June 2016 crash. (From the band's Facebook page)\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Van-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Van-370x493.jpg 370w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Van.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6082\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Low Anthem&#8217;s van after the June 2016 crash. (From the band&#8217;s Facebook page)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prystowsky was in the front passenger seat: \u201cI was dreaming and then it was a rude awakening. We got cut off on the highway, 60, 65 [miles an hour], we got cut off by someone going across two lanes to go into a rest area\u201d at the center of the road.<\/p>\n<p>Minto\u2019s \u201cfighter-pilot reactions saved the lives of a few pedestrians and yours truly,\u201d the band said on Facebook on June 27, 2016. Instead of plowing into people pumping gas at the rest area or bouncing into a ditch, Prystowsky says, Minto drove head-on into a pole. \u201cHe actually split the pole in two so the pole went right between us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we had the first impact, there was this silence that seemed to spread out,\u201d Minto says. \u201cIt was just hiss and smoke. And that song came blaring back on and I remember reaching back to turn the radio off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knox, who was in the back, \u201cjust flipped in the air,\u201d Wallis says. \u201cAnd landed without a scratch,\u201d Prystowsky adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe engine was on fire. There\u2019s blood everywhere. Who\u2019s bleeding out?\u201d Knox wondered. \u201cI\u2019m like someone\u2019s got to be dying right now. \u2026 It turned out we had two cases of red wine and they had flown through the air and smashed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was really scary, but I saw this incredible sense of brotherhood between you two,\u201d Minto says to Knox and Prystowsky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNormally it\u2019s Jeff taking care of me because I\u2019m really drunk,\u201d Knox jokes.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6081\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6081\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Band.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6081\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Band.jpg\" alt=\"The Low Anthem after the June 2016 crash. (From the band's Facebook page)\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Band.jpg 960w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Band-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Band-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthemFacebook160627Band-370x278.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6081\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Low Anthem after the June 2016 crash. (From the band&#8217;s Facebook page)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prystowsky was concussed, hurt his left leg and lost his sight\u2014temporarily. Minto nearly broke an ankle and appeared in a photo the band posted to Facebook shortly after with a brace on his right leg and sporting crutches. Wallis \u201cwalked out with a scratched knee.\u201d The videographer seems to have hurt her arm. Knox came through it basically unscathed. The band\u2019s instruments were smashed to pieces.<\/p>\n<p>Prystowsky, the worst injured, was \u201chealing with his family in Jersey,\u201d the band reported on Facebook. He recalls trying to cook eggs at one point and just dropping the whole carton of a dozen to the floor. \u201cI broke down with them and was weeping in all the egg yolks.\u201d He spent three weeks recovering. \u201cWith a concussion like that,\u201d he says, \u201cthe doctor said no screens, no reading, no music. I couldn\u2019t think. No inner thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was the end of the album in the States really,\u201d Knox says. \u201cWhen that happened and the van was on fire that was like a Biblical sign that it was time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6091\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6091\" style=\"width: 1170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1043w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6091\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1043w.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Prystowsky plays his \u201cmysterious station of sound\u201d as The Low Anthem rehearse at Providence's Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)\" width=\"1170\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1043w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1043w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1043w-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1043w-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1043w-370x247.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6091\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Prystowsky plays his \u201cmysterious station of sound\u201d as The Low Anthem rehearse at Providence&#8217;s Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>This Weird Fractally Process<\/strong><br \/>\nThe creation of \u201cEyeland\u201d already had been long and complicated\u2014a period of experimentation. \u201cIt was about finding what gear could fit in my room and I could mess with it at 4 in the morning,\u201d Knox recalls. They taught themselves how to record music while they were recording themselves for the album. Over the years it became \u201cthis weird fractally process that had different generations of shit from different periods of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The process coincided with the band\u2019s involvement in helping to renovate and manage Providence\u2019s Columbus Theater so it could reopen for shows in November 2012. They set up their own recording studio on the second floor. (They continue to help book, promote and run shows there\u2014as well as operating the studio and using the theater as their headquarters\/practice space.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe theater for all intents and purposes had been closed for a decade,\u201d Prystowsky tells me as he drives me to there in his Subaru station wagon. \u201cIt\u2019s been there since 1926. In the basement we found all these old electronics from that era, found cabaret dancer feathers. \u2026 There\u2019s something about the theater when you walk in there you lose a sense of what time and era you\u2019re in. It\u2019s timeless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This factored into the experimentation of \u201cEyeland\u201d as well. \u201cWe moved into a theater,\u201d Knox says, \u201cand we had this huge space to blast sound around in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, after all the painstaking, laborious construction of the album, \u201cThe van was on fire,\u201d Knox says. \u201cI had lost all my protectiveness about this previous record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat fire of the van, then turn the page,\u201d Prystowsky says. \u201cIt\u2019s two empty pages and make something else.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6089\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6089\" style=\"width: 1170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0996w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6089\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0996w.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Prystowsky (left) plays guitar and Ben Knox sings at the keyboard during The Low Anthem's rehearsal at Providence's Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)\" width=\"1170\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0996w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0996w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0996w-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0996w-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0996w-370x247.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6089\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Prystowsky (left) plays guitar and Ben Knox sings at the keyboard during The Low Anthem&#8217;s rehearsal at Providence&#8217;s Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>After The Noise Rushed Out<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cI hadn\u2019t written any songs in four and a half years since we started recording \u2018Eyeland,\u2019\u201d Knox says. He\u2019d not wanted to get distracted from finishing those songs by starting new ones. \u201cIt had been so long since I had looked at a blank page. When the noise of that rushed out and there was silence, any little thing, you could hear it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the crash, Knox and Minto rented a U-Haul truck, found the totaled van in a junkyard, loaded the wreckage of the band\u2019s instruments into the rear, and drove back to Providence and the Columbus Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had left the room in a kind of Rube Goldberg status,\u201d Knox recalls. Records and wind chimes and \u201cone speaker was sending sounds out of a PVC pipe\u201d and \u201cI had a cat I was teaching to play piano. All this energy, all this sound was happening. All this sound was waiting for me. I didn\u2019t have anything to do because the tour was cancelled. I never have nothing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So Knox burrowed into 16 days of songwriting: \u201cI did one song every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On his mind was Kay Larson\u2019s 2012 book \u201cWhere the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was about [Cage\u2019s] parallel pursuits of art and Buddhist philosophy and the way the two are influencing each other,\u201d Knox says. The avant-garde composer\u2019s pursuit of Buddhism inspired Cage to open his music to indeterminacy, chance and silence\u2014as in his landmark 1952 composition 4\u201933\u201d in which a musician sat at a piano for four minutes and 33 seconds playing nothing and your mind opened to the sounds of the room and then the universe. \u201cThis eccentric genius needing to communicate and the lengths he was going to,\u201d Knox marvels.<\/p>\n<p>About a third of the way through the book, Knox found a story about the 19th century Hindu mystic Ramakrishna.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRamakrishna gazes lovingly at this disciples. \u2018Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean.\u2019 Ramakrishna\u2019s companions laugh; they know what comes next. \u2018It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner had it got into the water than it melted. Now who was there to speak about the depth?\u2019\u201d Larson writes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe story exists to explain samadhi, the moment of bliss and oneness in Hindu practice,\u201d Knox says. \u201cTo go fully in there is also to be unable to communicate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe contradiction the little salt doll offered, that hit me pretty hard,\u201d Knox says. The songs became a concept album about the salt doll, about cycles of life, about things changing states and then returning back again.<\/p>\n<p>Cage\u2019s style also percolated though the music. Knox says, \u201cThis record was looking for the very smallest sounds. It started with the sounds of scratches on records. It happened by accident.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6086\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6086\" style=\"width: 1170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0970w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6086\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0970w.jpg\" alt=\"Ben Knox doctored actual records to get the popping and crackling sound on The Low Anthem's new album. Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)\" width=\"1170\" height=\"831\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0970w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0970w-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0970w-768x545.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0970w-1024x727.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_0970w-370x263.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ben Knox doctored actual records to get the popping and crackling sound on The Low Anthem&#8217;s new album. Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The pops and scratches in the songs are the actual sounds of a needle circling the gutters at the end of records, in the gap between the end of the music and the beginning of the label in the center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaybe you\u2019re stoned or daydreaming and you think I should get up and turn that off,\u201d Knox says, \u201cbut two and a half hours later, you\u2019re still listening.\u201d He drew this out by doctoring the actual records. \u201cOn the label, I would use a pen to mark where the time lined up. \u2026 I would us a tiny awl to mark where the beats might go. There\u2019s something about how that circle keeps time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knox says, \u201cIt\u2019s brought all the way up in the gain stage, brought up into our perception. It\u2019s like looking at dust under the microscope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat idea continued through the record,\u201d Prystowsky says. \u201cChopsticks on the edge of a paper bag. All these little sounds where you can hear the edges and the beginnings of the sound.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust barely touching it,\u201d Knox says. \u201cThere were a lot of toy instruments and weird instruments because all of our instruments had been destroyed in the car crash.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot as dense, not as layered as the last one,\u201d Prystowsky says. \u201cA lot more space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInfinitely spinning vinyl records,\u201d Prystowsky says, inspired meditations on cosmic cycles. \u201cCircular ideas and physical circularity going on at the same time. \u2026 There\u2019s a lot of songs on the album which describe cycles which return to where they\u2019ve begun.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6090\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6090\" style=\"width: 1170px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1029w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6090\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1029w.jpg\" alt=\"Florence Wallis (left) plays toy piano and Bryan Minto plays guitar during The Low Anthem's rehearsal at Providence's Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)\" width=\"1170\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1029w.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1029w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1029w-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1029w-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/picLowAnthem180217_1029w-370x247.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6090\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Florence Wallis (left) plays toy piano and Bryan Minto plays guitar during The Low Anthem&#8217;s rehearsal at Providence&#8217;s Columbus Theatre, Feb. 17, 2018. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>A Reflective Moment<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cSilica and soda ash \/ smelted into bottle glass,\u201d Knox sings on the new album\u2019s song \u201cBone of Sailor, Bone of Bird.\u201d \u201cGliding on her wavy skin \/ throwing bottles back again \/\/ pounded in the crushing surf \/ bottles round and granular.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Knox was pondering how sand can be heated to become glass. He imagined sailors taking bottles to sea, hurling them overboard, and the water and rocks grinding the glass down to sand again. \u201cAround and around they go,\u201d Knox says.<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cGondwanaland,\u201d Knox mulls salty seawater driven underground by the formation, hundreds of million years ago, of a supercontinent that scientists have dubbed Gondwanaland. He envisioned miners digging up salt deposits that still retain \u201cthis memory of this other essence as a thing of the ocean and this longing to understand what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been two hundred fifty \/ million human years since we \/ were last in open ocean,\u201d he sings, \u201csifting round Gondwanaland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Put the struggles to create \u201cEyeland\u201d and the fiery tour crash next to the themes of \u201cThe Salt Doll Went To Measure The Depth Of The Sea,\u201d and you might fall into an easy psychological interpretation: Wisdom gained at a cost of personal loss. Knox, Prystowsky and Minto nod to acknowledge there might be something to that theory. Maybe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a reflective moment after a crash,\u201d Prystowsky says. \u201cYou\u2019re like, oh, you nearly lost it all. Again it\u2019s loose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t intentionally do that,\u201d Knox says. \u201cBut that resonates. That\u2019s as true as anything we meant to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He adds, \u201cIt never felt like wisdom. It felt like emptiness, or something else.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activism by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And <a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Up past the golden lobby of Providence\u2019s Columbus Theatre, still decorated with vintage posters advertising Verdi&#8217;s &#8220;La Traviata&#8221; and screenings of &#8220;The Song of the Soul&#8221; and Cecil B. DeMille&#8217;s &#8220;Il Massacro dei Cristiani,&#8221; past the doors to the ornate 800-seat hall with its grand murals and soaring proscenium arches, upstairs past the intimate 200-seat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[296,72,298,297],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6078"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6162,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6078\/revisions\/6162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}