ALBUMThese Things Don't Matter Now - SingleBirds Of Passage
Albums by Birds Of Passage
ALBUMThe Last GardenBirds Of Passage
ALBUMThe Death of Our InventionBirds Of Passage
ALBUMThis Kindly SlumberBirds Of Passage
ALBUMWinter LadyBirds Of Passage
ALBUMDear and UnfamiliarBirds Of Passage & Leonardo Rosado
ALBUMWithout the WorldBirds Of Passage
Artist Biography
Birds of Passage is the solo project of New Zealand's Alicia Merz, a poet and musician who creates vast, wintry drones with intimate, whispered vocals. Inspired by Arvo Pärt, Nick Drake, and Leonard Cohen, her music seems fragile and weightless, but her vocals are often clear and direct, expressing feelings of longing and loneliness while reflecting on dreams and memories. She rarely re-records her vocals, as she feels that the first takes always express pure, honest emotions. Active since the early 2010s, the majority of her work has arrived via German label Denovali Records.
She began the project in 2010, debuting with the full-length Without the World, which was initially released by the California-based Future Recordings. Denovali Records signed Birds of Passage the following year and reissued her debut, in addition to releasing Dear and Unfamiliar (with Leonardo Rosado), Winter Lady, and the Highwaymen in Midnight Masks EP. I Was All You Are, a collaborative EP with I've Lost, was released by Cooper Cult in 2012. During the same year, Merz and Gareth Munday released a full-length of loop/sample-based electro-folk under the name Brother Sun, Sister Moon. In 2013, Watery Starve released a split double cassette containing one side each by Birds of Passage, Je Suis le Petit Chevalier, Motion Sickness of Time Travel, and Aloonaluna. Birds of Passage's third solo full-length, This Kindly Slumber, appeared on Denovali in 2014. Following a four-year absence, Merz returned in 2018 with The Death of Our Invention. ~ Paul Simpson