Category: Phosphorescent

Transmissions :: Phosphorescent

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We’ve reached the end of the road for this season—season 9 concludes with this episode, a conversation with Matthew Houck, the leader of the avant-country band Phosphorescent. In April, Phosphorescent released Revelator, the band’s ninth album. It’s their debut for Verve Records, after a string of well-received albums on Dead Oceans. Joined by collaborators like Jim White of the Dirty Three—who you heard earlier this season—Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs, and his wife and songwriting partner Jo Schornikow, it finds Houck examining—what else?—the end of the world. 

Catching Up With Phosphorescent

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It’s been five years since the last Phosphorescent album, a dark half decade for most people and especially for those in the performing and creative arts. So it’s not surprising that when Matthew Houck first glimpsed the contours of what would become Revelator, the album seemed like it would be quiet, insular, inward-looking and maybe a bit of a downer. But a funny thing happened when Houck began working and reworking this material. It caught an updraft of hope, of expansiveness, or cosmic revelation. First and second takes with a core band yielded a free, unfettered sound, not perfect or finished, but a foundation for further refinement.