Indigo Sparke - “Colourblind”

SXSW 2022 - OEB Score: 8; Popularity Index: 6

Pairs Well With…The Weather Station, Mazzy Star, Cassandra Jenkins

Indigo Sparke’s 2021 record Echo is a quietly stunning debut, a bedroom folk record with deep, personal impact. Performing mostly over a ghostly, fingerpicked guitar, Sparke’s power is in her naturally tender voice, a soft instrument of beauty that demands a close and nuanced listen. There’s a hypnotic quality to Echo from the repeated guitar lines and Sparke’s embrace of space as an instrument itself, songs that feel like they could go into perpetuity until the Australian artist decides to pan out. It’s a record that explores sadness and longing, a softened tension that bleeds from her songwriting and often pained performance. Listeners drawing Big Thief connections while listening to Echo won’t be surprised to hear Adrianne Lenker co-produced and imaginably contributed to the patient, emotionally rich threads that define these nice tracks. Indigo Sparke is a special artist that will quiet SXSW rooms to a pin-drop hush this March as the songs of Echo gently float through the air. (Kevin McStravick)