An album of previously unheard music by Sparklehorse is set to be released posthumously.
Spanning 14 tracks, Bird Machine marks the first collection of new music by Mark Linkous to be released since his suicide in 2010. It features the track ‘It Will Never Stop’, which was released in December, as well as a new cut, ‘Evening Star Supercharger’, which you can listen to above.
The tracks on Bird Machine were initially due to be released as the fifth Sparklehorse album in 2009. Linkous recorded the tracks with Steve Albini in Chicago, as well as with his 1968 Flickinger mixing console at his own Static King studio. Most of the album was completed before his death, and he jotted down the title and a tracklisting in handwritten notes which were later seen by his brother, Matt, who has spent recent years overseeing his late brother’s estate and archiving his recordings.
Some of the record’s tracks have been given subtle additions by producer Alan Weatherhead, as well as mixer Joel Hamilton and engineer Greg Calbi. "It’s the hardest decision I’ve ever made," Matt Linkous said of this process. "It’s difficult making a choice about someone else’s art, even if you’ve known them all your life and worked with them, even if they were your brother and best friend. We had long conversations about not wanting to take this into a different direction. We wanted to bring out what was there."
He continued: "It means so much to me, this last batch of beautiful stuff that my brother was putting together. When I sit down and put on a pair of headphones, I’ll run it all the way through. Everything from ‘It Will Never Stop’ to ‘Evening Star Supercharger’ to ‘Stay’, that’s Mark just letting it out.
ANTI- will release Bird Machine on September 8, 2023.
