Last month, Dawn Richard and multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Spencer Zahn announced their second collaborative album, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, out October 4th via Merge Records, and released the “glacial and entrancing” (New York Times) lead single “Breath Out.” Today, the pair unveil the intimate and familial “Traditions.” “You call it superstitions / I call it traditions / You call it lucky / I call it blessings,” Richard sings, highlighting the juxtapositions between how some may see one thing based on the way they were raised. On the track’s production, Zahn explains: “Dawn’s intimate vocal style on this brings me into her world while also making me think of my own life and family. I wanted to frame that feeling in the composition.”

Listen to “Traditions” 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.

On paper, Richard and Zahn’s audacious, impressionistic musical collaborations feel like a surprising match. Richard, a New Orleans–reared visionary, has had an improbable journey from late 2000s reality television and mainstream pop with girl group Danity Kane to become one of the most prolific, experimental, and visible indie R&B singer-songwriters of the last decade and a half. Zahn is an East Coast–raised multi-instrumentalist and composer working at the intersections of jazz, Americana, classical, and ambient pop. 

Richard and Zahn share a genuine sense of musical curiosity and eagerness to escape the conventions of genre. That shared vision first brought them together on Pigments, named a best album of 2022 by Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan and beyond, Best New Music by Pitchfork, who called it “a remarkable endeavor, one that combines the properties of both artists’ music until it becomes a pristine, unified feeling,” and hailed by Okayplayer, who remarked on Dawn’s “journey from bad boy to indie pioneer [as] a creative pilgrimage.” 

This second collaboration, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, is 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. It 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, expanding the definitions of what constitutes progressive, avant-garde R&B. 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.” 

Richard and Zahn will be going on a North American tour this coming fall, with performances in Chicago, New York, Boston, and more. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here.

Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn on tour:
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