Balmorhea started humbly. Austin’s Rob Lowe and Michael A. Muller first met and made music at a Hill Country summer camp in 2006. They soon established Balmorhea as a vehicle to explore their shared love of classical, folk, post-rock, and ambient music. Augmented by drums, strings, and a wide roster of musicians, the group has toured the U.S. and Europe repeatedly, earned rave reviews for its minimalist sound, and now records for Deutsche Grammophon, the defining classical label based in Germany.
In his guest DJ set this week, Lowe credits a lot of this success with our city. “One thing that I really love about my time when I was young in Austin, is that it really supported that type of creativity and that type of art. For anybody out there that’s making music that you feel like can’t break through, just keep making it. We need more than just the hits.”
Balmorhea returns with its eighth album Pendant World, out June 16. The band tours Europe again this summer and returns with an Austin show at the Paramount on October 5th. This week on My KUTX, Lowe dips back into the influences that make Balmorhea so unique, from contemporary classical composers to Austin indie rock icons. Listen on Saturday, June 3 at 6 p.m. or listen anytime right here.
Playlist:
- Rachel’s – “Systems / Layers”
- Max Richter – “Horizon Variations”
- The American Analog Set – “Punk As Fuck”
- The Six Parts Seven – “Spaces Between Days (Part 4)”
- Tortoise – “Ten-Day Interval”
- Pullman – “To Hold Down A Shadow”
- Grouper – “Heavy Water / I’d Rather Be Sleeping”
- Bexar Bexar – “Sweet Devil”
- Aisha Burns – “Sold”
- Magnolia Electric Co. – “Northstar Blues”
- Tiny Vipers – “Dreamer”
- Nils Frahm – “Over There, It’s Raining”
- Balmorhea – “Depth Serenade”
