Today Big Search returns with a new collaboration featuring fellow Los Angeles artist Chris Cohen.
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“I recorded ‘Infinite Mirror’ with Chris Cohen and my band at Jason Quever’s studio in LA last summer,” Big Search’s Matt Popieluch says of the track, which premieres below with an accompanying video.
“I’ve known Chris since the early 2000’s when we both played on the Cass McCombs record ‘A,’ which was being recorded at my house in San Francisco by bandmate/roommate Jason Quever (Papercuts),” Popieluch continues. “I’ve been a huge fan of Chris’s for a long time and I heard his voice for the harmony so I asked him to produce and play on it. He ended up singing and playing the acoustic guitars along with Carl Harders (bass), Amir Kennan (drums), Tim Ramsey (ambient guitar), and Jason Quever (singing, percussion, engineering). It was humbling to work with both him and Jason at the same time, two people I greatly admire and respect as artists and people.”
“Infinite Mirror” is a doleful chamber pop number that pairs Popieluch and Cohen’s harmonies with sweeping instrumentation.
“The Infinite Mirror is what we see everything through, as our surroundings become reflections of ourselves,” the duo add. “The problems we’re experiencing, we’ve created. Everything is an extension. Every corner offers a new chance to tilt the mirror. Everywhere you look, there are pictures you can divide forever. You are always reflecting off of something. Every direction came out of the past.”
The track comes after Big Search’s recent cover of Lucio Battisti’s 1977 song “To Feel in Love,” which arrived in June.
“Ever since I heard the English version of ‘To Feel In Love,’ I felt connected to it, like I had written it,” said Popieluch upon sharing his version. “That’s usually the case with songs I cover: I play them endlessly until they feel part of me. I feel like it’s also a way to turn others on to the original, which is incredible and criminally under the radar.”
For Cohen, “Infinite Mirror” comes after his latest single, “Physical Address,” a hypnotic bop that Cohen recorded at home between April and May. (The single art, by Bailey Elder, perfectly captures the song’s dissociative pull.)
Both artists released full-length records last year.
“Some influences are new, some are old; this time I was really into Thomas Dolby’s first album, Eduardo Mateo, the first Chrome record, (1976’s The Visitation on Siren Records),” Cohen said of his 2019 self-titled album—his third on Captured Tracks. “I always go back to the basics; Burt Bacharach, Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, The Rolling Stones.”
Big Search’s 2019 album, Slow Fascination, featured contributions from Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste, The Shins’ James Mercer, and Kacey Johansing, drawing comparisons to Big Star, The Posies, and Harry Nilsson. It was Popieluch’s sophomore effort as Big Search — he was previously the “frontbrah” of LA indie rock outfit Foreign Born.
“Infinite Mirror” is out now via 30th Century Records. Check out the accompanying 16mm flick by Leanna Kaiser below.
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