The debut album from cinematic electro-pop duo Ringdown, featuring Danni Lee Parpan and Pulitzer and Grammy winner Caroline Shaw, Lady on the Bike, is out now 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. This feeling of possibility glimmers like a disco ball throughout the album, radiating with a sense of movement, transformation, and wonder. 

You can hear the album and get it HERE. You can take a quick look inside the vinyl in Ringdown's unboxing video below:

“Ecstatically blissful," says Night After Night's Steve Smith. “There haven’t been too many duos like this one," says Oregon ArtsWatch's Matthew Neil Andrews. "If Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had made a whole album of songs like ‘Don’t Give Up,’ it might have sounded something like this.”

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 (NASIR) and Rosalía (MOTOMAMI), 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 singular style of pop music that feels otherworldly as it explores the spaces between electronic and acoustic sounds and re-imagines traditional song structure.

Ringdown’s world of sound holds feelings and lyrics the way Shaw and Parpan’s hearts and minds want to experience them. The songs on Lady on the Bike channel the honesty of human existence by drawing from subjects including relationships (good and not-so-good), personal growth, political anger, and joy. The album title reflects this as well, inspired by a moving experience of connection and community shared by the band.

“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.’”

Last month, Ringdown released the single “Emotional Absentee,” a song about trying to create a deeper connection with someone but realizing they are emotionally unavailable. The track features indie electro-pop group New Body Electric, whose band members Leah Vautar and Aaron K Peterson helped produce several songs on the album as well. The album also features Sō Percussion on a new version of Ringdown’s previously released single “Ghost.” Ringdown performed on Sō and Shaw’s new Grammy-winning album Rectangles and Circumstance, and the groups have been playing together in collaborative concerts since last fall. Ringdown will perform more of those concerts as well as their own headlining shows this spring and summer, full dates below.

RINGDOWN ON TOUR

* Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion feat. Ringdown
** Seven Scenes w/Bobbi Jene Smith & Or Schraiber