Rishi

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 2022-11-11

Label: Aerobic International

‘RISHI’ is the 4th studio album by San Francisco
singer-songwriter Luke Sweeney.
Inspired by the traumatic birth and unexpected
death of his infant daughter in 2018, this ‘humble
temple of songs’ was mostly written in India,
where Sweeney’s family made a return trip to
deliver Rishi’s ashes to the Ganges. The album’s
construction took place over the next two years in
a San Francisco apartment studio with longtime
collaborators Joe Santarpia (Mac DeMarco) and Roberto Pagano (Tonsstartssbandht) — and features
musical contributions from some of Sweeney’s bandmates in Healing Potpourri. The rich and heavenly
synth tones, breathy brass and wind curves, and earthy rhythmic textures carry the emotional weight of
a very heavy subject matter with a deft playfulness akin to a group of spirits guiding us through
untethered dimensions.
Straddling that line between the sacred and profane has always been a skill of Sweeney’s, but here the
indie-pop tightrope act is taken to another level. Deities and drifters alike play a part in a sonic
procession that pulls from all corners of the world; everything from 808 beats, synth bass lines, Nile
Rogers-esque strums, and groovy Prince-like party refrains sit alongside stoney 60’s-style interludes,
jazzy futuristic spells, prog-rock guitar plucks and riffs, a children’s chorus and even Hindu chanting
circles. Orchestrated with loads of samples from Sweeney’s original demos, these recordings are as
thrifty, raw and real as they are divinely crafted — navigated by a lyrical character so sincere that it could
only be the voice of someone who has endured the darkest of life’s tribulations and lived to see the light
on other side.