Kevin Bronson on August 12th, 2013

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The music of Lo-Fang is like a symphony in miniature, a minimalist collage of plucked strings, massaged notes and spare beats. And Matthew Hemerlein’s voice, a silken instrument that exudes the intimacy of somebody whispering in your ear. A Washington, D.C., transplant who released the album “Hot Nickels” in 2010 under his own name, Hemerlein has adopted the nom de tune Lo-Fang because his new work “is a lot more reflective of the musical and cultural ideas … [than] the music I’ve been making then my birth name,” he says. It’s rapturous either way, and the man of many instruments – he plays violin, cello, upright bass, guitar, mandolin and piano – will be releasing new music via 4AD. No surprise, then, that the song “#88” caught ear of KCRW.

||| Stream: “#88”

||| Also: After the jump, watch Hemerlein’s 2011 video for “Luminescent Braid” (and stream his arresting cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”:):

||| Stream: “Creep”