New Indiana Issues “Media” Ahead of Debut Album (premiere)

Guitarist Randy Bergida and cellist Topu Lyo met at the University of Arizona in the final hours of the 1990s. They soon made a habit of recording their long conversations, a habit that continued for nearly 20 years as the pair traveled all across North America. There was no artistic destination for the recordings but once they had started their duo, New Indiana, the pair began recalling some of these talks as they played around with acoustic guitar, cello and vocals.

Their compositions and experimentations has resulted in Darkness Sunshine, New Indiana’s debut. Demoed in a Brooklyn basement, sometimes in the early hours of the morning and late hours of the night, the pair played very quietly, eschewing the usual round of pedals and amplifiers. At least for the most part. Somewhere in the process they discovered that ramping up their preamps added an unexpected texture to the material.

You can hear some of those possibilities and results on “Media”, a track culled from Darkness Sunshine, that debut album due out on August 17. The piece is an unexpectedly stark and meditative take on stillness, self-reflection and the world that surrounds us. The material will appeal to fans of Americana and contemporary classical while adhering to conventions of neither.