Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn announce new album, Quiet In A World Full Of Noise

In conjunction with the album announcement, they release the lead single, “Breath Out”, and announce tour dates, including a slot at London Jazz Festival on 16 November.

Richard and Zahn share a common collaborative ethos, a genuine sense of musical curiosity, and cosmopolitan eagerness to escape the conventions of genre. That shared vision first brought them together on 2022’s Pigments, and now reunites them for Quiet in a World Full of Noise.

Richard describes Quiet in a World Full of Noise as grounding: "Right now, everyone’s a little bit overwhelmed. I hope that this will be the record that people put on when they need the opportunity for reflection, when they need the stillness in their lives, now more than ever."

The making of Quiet in a World Full of Noise began in 2023 in upstate New York. Fresh from a break-up, Zahn sat at his piano and poured himself into writing and recording instrumental compositions. “I wrote all these stream-of-consciousness pieces on piano, and they were eerie, spacious piano tracks,” he says. He used a piano that had been unconventionally tuned to the room rather than to standard pitch. These recordings were never intended to be an album, but six months later, he listened to the instrumentals again and sent them to Richard who immediately recognised their potential as the follow up to Pigments.

Richard went into the studio the next day to write and record melodies and lyrics to Zahn’s piano recordings. “I did not write this down—I purged it out, and then I didn’t change anything after it. Our family has a distorted view of therapy; I’ve had to do a lot of healing on my own. So this was a moment of severe openness, sharing that moment with the world," says Richard.

Tracklist:

1. Stains
2. Quiet in a World Full of Noise
3. Traditions
4. Diets
5. Stay
6. Life in Numbers
7. Moments for Stillness
8. The Dancer
9. Breath Out
10. To Remove
11. Ocean Past
12. Try