Sparklehorse / BIRD MACHINE

Anti- Records is honoured to share a never-before-heard album by Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse titled Bird Machine. Originally recorded in 2010 and mixed by Joel Hamilton (who also worked on It’s A Wonderful Life), Joel’s brother Matt notes “great care has been taken to archive and preserve Mark’s music. We are very thankful for Mark and the beauty he brought to this world.”

Sparklehorse was an American indie rock band formed by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Linkous in the mid-1990s. Born on September 9, 1962, in Arlington, Virginia, Linkous began playing music as a teenager. Described as an artist who “compelled listeners to heed the beauty of darkness” by Pitchfork, Sparklehorse released many influential records, including the renowned albums Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and Good Morning Spider in the ’90s, It’s A Wonderful Life and Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain in the early naughts, and a collaborative album Dark Night of the Soul released in 2010.

Throughout his career Mark collaborated with thought provoking artists like Vic Chesnutt, Daniel Johnston, Tom Waits, Danger Mouse, and David Lynch. While Mark recorded in various studios, collaborating with other musicians and producers, he did much of his work in his home studio, Static King, often playing and recording everything on his own. He was “very much kind of a working-class guy with a very poetic sensibility, who was drawn to artists like himself, who worked in isolation,” said NPR Fresh Air’s Ken Tucker.