Indigo Sparke writes with a rare and reflective power, creating music that builds and bursts as she examines love, loss, grief, and a newly realized rage. Born in Australia and now based in New York, Indigo established herself in the Sydney music scene with her EP Night Bloom (2016). She has toured with Big Thief, had a song featured on the TV show Cloudy River, and performed across Australia and the U.S., including at the Splendour in the Grass Festival, a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR, and SXSW 2019 and 2021. 

Indigo signed with Sacred Bones in early 2021, and made her label debut shortly after with Echo, which Pitchfork described as “a dark little star of intimacy and intensity.” In spring 2021, Indigo began work on her second album with producer Aaron Dessner (The National, Taylor Swift) who said “it always feels like some weird miracle when songs emerge that you want to listen to all the time -- and this was definitely the case with her record. It feels cohesive and timeless and inspired to me in a way that I know I will keep coming back to. I think the chemistry is right.” That album, Hysteria, is packed with big guitars and layered instrumentation that act as lungs, giving every note breath underneath Indigo’s soaring vocals. 

This is music that sounds huge even as it zooms in on the trials and turmoils of one’s inner life, from the pulsing immediacy of “Infinity Honey” to the soaring “God Is a Woman’s Name” or the towering chorus on “Hold On.” You can hear Sparke reflecting on reconciliation, grief, hope, and the passage of time on the perpetually building “Pressure in My Chest” and the airy, Joni Mitchell-esque title track, which finds her embracing a gorgeous upper register over gently strummed guitar. “Set Your Fire on Me” builds and bursts not unlike Angel Olsen’s own raw folk-rock expressionism—and then there’s the stark opener and first single “Blue,” which acts as a cosmic road map for Sparke’s own journey in life. 

While the world that Sparke inhabits is a rich tapestry of sound that pulls the listener into circular spaces of seemingly never ending minimalistic textures and harmonic suspensions, what’s most clearly on display is her voice and her song forms. Deceptively simple structures wind like labyrinths in a whirlwind of lyrical expression and vocal pageantry calling to mind the early works of PJ Harvey, Meredith Monk, and the like. These compositions are a warm invitation into her world.

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We acknowledge that this event is held on the stolen lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.