The lush, melancholy world of Monk Parker is located in the dark, hidden places of America. Empty midday honky-tonks, fogbound north-woods diners, and the shadowy, aging cinemas, libraries & museums wherein Saul Leiter, David Lynch, Bruno Schulz, Anselm Kiefer, Dennis Johnson and Wong Kar Wei yet reside… these are his natural home.

Parker’s sophomore effort Crown of Sparrows is due to be released August 4th on New York City’s Grand Jury Music label. The new album is both majestic and feral, it’s tension hidden beneath a scratched-surface warmth with layers of feedback trembling just at the edge of earshot. It is a dense, funereal sound evocative of Townes Van Zandt at his least folksy and most heroin-saturated. Stately, off-kilter dreamlike waltzes build to explosive, gospel-tinged climaxes, and a woozy country narcosis kin to early My Morning Jacket or Phosphorescent alternates with feedback drones and buried noise melodies.

Just the kind of stuff we like. Stream Gaudy Frame below.