Autumn Luz sorts through the pieces of her traumatic existence on her dark and delicious new EP Fragments — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Luz knew the title of her debut EP, and the darkly cathartic, five-song collection’s thematic bend before she knew what program of songs would comprise it. The EP would be culled from a sprawling 30-40 song catalog that explored the shadowy emotions that continue to haunt childhood trauma survivors well into adulthood, and shape their experiences in future relationships.
“These are sharp little pieces of my fragmented sense of self as a complex trauma survivor,” the Philadelphia indie-rock artist reveals. “Each song describes just one element of one of the wildest years of my life, connecting with parts of myself I had ignored for decades, and setting myself free.”
Luz’s noir-ish songwriting blurs lines between jazz, rock, pop, R&B and folk. One apt comparison has been “if Fiona Apple and Portishead had a baby.” She fearlessly follows her heart and her ear to unusual chords, rhythms, and structures, and then gratefully lets her compositions blossom through her collaborators. Fragments features musical contributions from literally around the world, including trusted co-producer, co-writer, and multi-instrumentalist Samwe. Autumn has performed on the main stage at World Café Live, and previously released two acclaimed singles.
Fragments cohesively establishes the span of Luz’s tenebrous and tantalizing aesthetic. Unbridled passion, poetry, and unleashed fury course through the album’s lyrics, as she struggles to process heartache, love, lust, and internalized violence. The smoldering (Sweet) Nothing features pristine vocals sung like a resigned angel; a dense and deftly orchestrated interlace of guitars; and a sublime, piano-centric passage toward the end. In the song’s first verse, Autumn sings:
“I now realize why I spent more than 10 years not feeling
I’m always a fool for someone to adore
Pain consumes me until I envision
Myself bleeding out alone on the floor…
Please tattoo me
Ink me truly
For forever
Paint it through me.”
“There were a couple of things going on that fit together nicely in this song. I honest-to-God, really, really wanted to get a tattoo since before the Covid-19 lockdowns,” she says laughing.
The mesmerizing King of Promises is built around a captivating keyboard melody that slowly blossoms into a dreamy indie-pop track. The song is elegantly adorned with groundbreaking cello playing that finds the instrument gracefully reaching beyond its usual tonal capabilities for fresh sounds. The punk-infused Shadow Man is a vitriolic and empowering screed, purging years of resentments and invalidation in a tight and twisted song:
“The two-year-old 40-year-old man will pout
Until he’s convinced you you’re wrong
He’ll make you apologize while he tears you down, if you let him
But I won’t be, no I won’t be
Falling down at your feet, no no no no.”
In addition to music, lyrics, vocals, and production by Luz, plus music, arrangement, guitar performance, and production by Samwe, Fragments features an international roster of special guests. Grammy-winning engineer Samantha Rosen (H.E.R., Jazmine Sullivan) handled vocal production and mixing at Philadelphia’s Milkboy Studios (Lana Del Rey, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus). Other notable instrumentalists include Boston cellist Leo Eguchi; Dublin drummer Paul McGonagle; Caracas percussionist Germán Domador; Philadelphia bassist Mitch Beer (Lil Uzi Vert, Cyndi Lauper, Digable Planets) and composer, pianist, and guitarist Sarun Charumilind. Grammy-nominated engineer Ryan Schwabe (Baauer, Pussy Riot, Cochise) mastered Fragments.
Check out Fragments below, watch some of Autumn Luz’s videos above, and catch up with her on her website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
