Dawn Richard and multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Spencer Zahn reunite for their second collaborative album, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, to be released on October 4 via Merge Records. In conjunction with today’s announcement, they release lead single “Breath Out” and announce a fall North American tour, tickets for which go on sale Friday, July 12, at 10am local time. Listen to “Breath Out” wherever you stream music, and reserve your copy of Quiet in a World Full of Noise on CD or LP in the Merge Store, where you can bundle it at a discount with the duo’s first album or Richard’s Merge debut.

Richard and Zahn share a common collaborative ethos, a genuine sense of musical curiosity, and cosmopolitan eagerness to escape the conventions of genre. That shared vision first brought them together on 2022’s Pigments, and now reunites them for Quiet in a World Full of Noise, a bold experiment in emotional storytelling, and a blueprint for stillness, simplicity, and the art of working across differences in the midst of a polarizing cultural climate. 

By turns intimate, spectral, and startling, Quiet in a World Full of Noise blends atmospheric and orchestral soundscapes with mellifluous soul, jazz, and journalistic vocalizing, expanding the definitions of what constitutes progressive, avant-garde R&B. The new album finds Richard at her most raw and exposed as she channels the emotional impact of traumatic experiences of loss into her stark lyrics and vocal performances.

The making of Quiet in a World Full of Noise began in 2023 in upstate New York. Fresh from a break-up, Zahn sat at his piano and poured himself into writing and recording instrumental compositions. “I wrote all these stream-of-consciousness pieces on piano, and they were eerie, spacious piano tracks,” he says. He used a piano that had been unconventionally tuned to the room rather than to standard pitch. These recordings were never intended to be an album, but six months later, he listened to the instrumentals again and sent them to Richard who immediately recognized their potential as the follow up to Pigments.

Richard went into the studio the next day to write and record melodies and lyrics to Zahn’s piano recordings. “I did not write this down—I purged it out, and then I didn’t change anything after it. Our family has a distorted view of therapy; I’ve had to do a lot of healing on my own. So this was a moment of severe openness, sharing that moment with the world," says Richard. While Pigments featured a smaller, more insular group of musicians, Quiet branches out, bringing in gifted players like Bryan Senti on strings, CJ Camerieri on brass, and the 26-person Budapest Film Orchestra—recorded remotely at 4 a.m.—for the dramatic “Moments for Stillness.”

Richard describes Quiet in a World Full of Noise as grounding: “Right now, everyone’s a little bit overwhelmed. I hope that this will be the record that people put on when they need the opportunity for reflection, when they need the stillness in their lives, now more than ever.”

Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn on tour:
Jul 11 London, UK – Colours*
Jul 12 Birmingham, UK – Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival*
Jul 15 London, UK – Somerset House*
Jul 27 Carrboro, NC – Cat's Cradle (Merge 35) [SOLD OUT]
Oct 22 Minneapolis, MN – Dakota
Oct 23 Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall Ballroom
Oct 24 Chicago, IL – Old Town School of Folk Music
Oct 26 Pittsburgh, PA – The Andy Warhol Museum
Oct 27 Toronto, ON – Lula Lounge
Oct 29 Brooklyn, NY – National Sawdust
Oct 30 Brooklyn, NY – National Stardust
Nov 02 Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
Nov 03 Boston, MA – Institute of Contemporary Art
Nov 16 – London, UK – London Jazz Festival

*Dawn Richard solo