Lady on the Bike Ringdown

• 1 The Mess 03:22
• 2 I Won't Go 02:30
• 3 My Turn 03:14
• 4 Run 02:33
• 5 Old Noir 01:20
• 6 Teach Me 02:06
• 7 Ghost (feat. Sō Percussion) 02:56
• 8 Reckoning 04:22
• 9 Crazy 02:40
• 10 Emotional Absentee (feat. New Body Electric) 02:59
• 11 Two-Step 02:49
• 12 Thirst 03:30
• 13 Trigger Warning 02:51
• 14 Could've Been 03:09
• Total Runtime 40:21

Info for Lady on the Bike

Cinematic electro-pop duo Ringdown, featuring Danni Lee Parpan and Pulitzer and Grammy winner Caroline Shaw, will release its debut album, Lady on the Bike, May 9 on Nonesuch Records. The album celebrates the feeling of possibility in myriad forms: the possibility of love; the possibility of creating connection and community in a world trying to pull those things apart; the possibility of making music in new ways.

“We were at Big Ears Festival and about to perform our first big Ringdown show,” Parpan explains. “There’s an infectious feeling of community there, so we thought it was the perfect spot to connect with people in a special way. We handmade vinyl covers for our future album and hid them in our favorite spots around Knoxville for others to find, but after planting them, we started spiraling and wondering if no one would care, and if we had just accidentally littered in a very branded way. At that moment, a lady rode past on her bike and yelled, ‘Hey Ringdown! I just found an album cover!’ We were overjoyed. It felt like a movie. That moment of connection became an important reminder of why we make music, and now our mantra is: ‘For younger you, for younger me, for future us, and for the lady on the bike.’”

Lady on the Bike is a mix of Shaw and Parpan’s pasts and presents, expressed in new ways. The duo was drawn to each other through mutual admiration of each other’s work; Shaw has won a Pulitzer Prize and several Grammy Awards for her boundary-breaking compositions and collaborated with celebrated artists such as Nas and Rosalía, and Parpan is a dynamic vocalist and folk-pop singer-songwriter who sings emotionally stirring lyrics and relishes in challenging how instruments are “supposed” to be played. Ringdown is a playground they can only access with each other, allowing them to create a style of pop music that explores the spaces between electronic and acoustic sounds and re-imagines traditional song structure.

Shaw explains, “I’ve thought for years about making a solo record that is in a more electro-pop vein, but didn’t have the courage. Danni Lee finally brought that out of me, and I wouldn’t have taken this step if it weren’t for her. Ringdown is where I experiment with so many things I’ve wanted to try. I’ve also learned that being in a band and making your own record is much harder than playing a Mozart sonata and I will absolutely die on that hill.”

The songs on Lady on the Bike draw from subjects such as relationships (good and not-so-good), personal growth, political anger, and joy.

Parpan shares, “I hope this album helps people feel whatever they need to feel. That when they listen to ‘Reckoning,’ they will consider bravely sending it to someone they love. That when they listen to ‘Two-Step,’ they will feel like dancing. That when they listen to ‘Run,’ they will feel inspired to fight for their rights, especially over the next four years.”

Shaw adds, “There are a few songs that feel like they were written to motivate an imagined heroine of a story to change her course and vanquish her enemies—and maybe fall in love along the way. I hope someone listens and wonders what their world could look like with a little more love, gentleness, and embrace of our collective human messiness, imperfection, grit, radiance, and potential.”

The songs were collaboratively written and recorded by the duo, mostly in unconventional settings around the world—at airports, Airbnbs, the Muziekgebouw concert hall, under a bridge in Amsterdam—and often using blankets to create makeshift sound booths and a Neumann TLM 102 mic that Shaw has carried with her for years. Ringdown invited New Body Electric members Leah Vautar and Aaron K Peterson to perform on and help produce several songs, helping the band crystallize its distinct pop sound. The album also features Sō Percussion on a new version of Ringdown’s previously released single “Ghost.” Ringdown appeared on Sō and Shaw’s Grammy-winning album Rectangles and Circumstance.

RINGDOWN:
Danni Lee Parpan, lead vocal (1, 3-4, 6-14), synth (1-2, 6), prepared piano(1,2), vocals (2)
Caroline Shaw, viola (1,4-6, 8, 10-11, 13), synth (1-5, 7-9, 11, 13), prepared piano(1, 3), lead vocal (2), drum programming (2,4, 11, 13), vocals (3-4, 6-8, 11, 13), piano (6-8, 11-12, 14), violin (8, 11), cello (8), programming (9)
Aaron K Peterson, drum programming (1, 11, 13), synth (3-4, 9, 11, 13), vocals (4), trumpet (5, 9), whistling (5), mellotron (5)
Leah Vautar, vocals (4)
Sō Percussion, percussion (7)
Additional musicians:
New Body Electric (10)
Leah Vautar, lead vocal, drums
Aaron K Peterson, synth drum programming
Evan Smoker, electric guitar, bass

RINGDOWN
featuring composer-musicians Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee – is an “ecstatically blissful” (Night After Night) and “irresistible” (Feast of Music) cinematic electro-pop duo creating music that floats up from the dusty record bin between Brahms and Brandi Carlile, and centers around joy, human connection, and trying to inspire people to feel more love (and maybe even reach out to a crush).

The duo was drawn to each other through mutual admiration of each other's work; Shaw has won a Pulitzer Prize and several Grammy Awards for her boundary-breaking compositions and contributed music to films including Beyoncé’s Homecoming and the upcoming Ken Burns documentary Leonardo da Vinci, and Parpan is a dynamic vocalist and folk-pop singer-songwriter who writes emotionally stirring lyrics and relishes in challenging how instruments are “supposed” to be played.

Together as Ringdown, they forge a new realm that unlocks ways to write, sing, and perform that they can only access with each other, encouraging each to loosen their grip on the music they have created before and fully revel in the intricate pop music they have both always loved. Their songs are built on late nights of countless back-and-forths on tables covered in instruments and wires, sonically merging Shaw’s pull toward the abstract with Parpan’s directness, perhaps with a playlist of Sylvan Esso, Glasser, Robyn, James Blake, and The Blow in the background. The result is music that invites deep listening but also welcomes you to sing along, and – they hope – helps people feel everything they have been too afraid to feel.

As for the band’s name: A ringdown is the theorized sound two black holes make in the final microseconds when they merge, a sub-bass whoosh and glide that suggest the world’s biggest synthesizer, sighing in contentment. This might also describe how Ringdown’s music sounds – or at least how it feels to the band. Ringdown is working on a debut album for Nonesuch Records and has performed across the U.S. and abroad at Big Ears, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Public Records, SXSW, Thuringia Bach Festival, and more.

The duo, who are partners on and off the stage, split their time between Portland, OR and New York, NY. Learn more at ringdownmusic.com and follow them on what they are proud to share is “their friend Virginia’s favorite Instagram account” at @ringdownmusic.

This album contains no booklet.