Balmorhea (duo)

For the past eight years the duo of Rob Lowe and Michael Muller have nurtured and
refined their creative partnership as the core members of the band Balmorhea. Though
their first album on Western Vinyl Rivers Arms (2008) garnered some remarkable press,
their self-titled debut, recorded in 2006 and released in 2007 best captures the duo's
unique magic as it first blossomed.
For these two Texans the release of their self-titled album was the beginning of a new
trajectory in their lives. They were young enough that their prefrontal cortexes were still
developing, but old enough to tap into the ancient stories that coursed through their
veins. Though crudely recorded at home, those early songs display all of the key characteristics and emotional scope that continue to define the duo's sound. Now, seven years later Western Vinyl is honored to have the opportunity reissue the band's self-titled
album, and make it available on vinyl for the first time ever.
In honor of this special reissue, the audio has been lovingly remastered, drawing out even more of the nuances...magnifying the sounds of Muller and Lowe's fingers on the instruments, and teasing out the textures that set these recordings apart from the rest of their catalog. Simple and sincere, these songs and ambient sounds the duo captured in these recordings are strangely inviting. Throughout the album the distant sounds of Texas grackles, the warm summer rain, the steady rhythm of crickets chirping, and creaking wooden stools, all seeping in to cradle the notes in a restrained din of primordial wonder.