UNINTELLIGIBLE: Getting a Little Lost with Arthur Russell

Letting go, tuning in, and drifting through a 'World of Echo'

A thing about me is that I have no sense of direction. As in, I get lost a lot. The number of times I’ve taken a wrong turn on a drive I’ve done hundreds of times is embarrassingly high. I get turned around very easily and it’s incredibly frustrating. It’s not “cute,” it’s a problem. I beat myself up about it every time it happens too. The things I’ve said to myself in these moments I would never want to hear directed at another person. I’m working on it, both in my directions and being kinder to myself.

I’m also prone to getting “lost in thought.” That’s also something I’ve lived with as long as I can remember. Once, when I was a kid, I was pacing and staring up at the clouds, lost in a daydream when… I walked right off a dock and into the water. Ultimately, it was fine (sure scared my mom though). When it happened, it took a minute for me to even register what was going on. One minute I’m staring at the grey blue sky and white grey clouds, the next all I saw was a haze of green and brown. This was not a crystal clear, blue water, resort beach. This was the murky, stagnant, algae soup of a Pacific Northwest lake. In retrospect, it’s really gross. But I still remember being mesmerized by that vision. The way the colors blurred together. The specks and twigs and gunk floating around me, like they were suspended in air. I always hated swimming (especially in lakes) so maybe what I saw was a familiar visage to most. But to me it was new and beautiful.

When I look at the cover of Arthur Russell’s World of Echo, it feels familiar. It feels like that brief moment in the water before my dad scooped me out and back onto the dock. It’s the perfect cover for the music – oblique, blurry, almost unknowable. Some of the vinyl pressings include my favorite hype sticker ever. In lieu of a flattering review or quote, it just says “UNINTELLIGIBLE.”

World of Echo was the only official release Arthur Russell made in his lifetime before he died in 1992 due to complications from AIDS related illnesses at age 40. But make no mistake – he made a lot of music. Much of it has been trickling out over the years following his death thanks to the wonderful archival work of his romantic partner Tom Lee and Audika Records.

In the last five years, Russell’s music has become increasingly important to me. I’d tried him out a few times over the years – I enjoyed the Iowa Dream compilation when it came out in 2019, but still didn’t totally get “all the fuss.” During the pandemic, a friend from Iceland posted Russell’s song “What It’s Like” on Instagram. I now know song is a stand out from the Love is Overtaking Me comp. But at the time, I just felt something compelling me to listen. When I visited Reykjavik in 2018 and 2019 for work, I heard so many artists invoke Russell as a guiding light and influence – there’s even a great tribute compilation of Arthur Russell covers put out by the wonderful post-dreifing Records. Maybe it was just missing Iceland, but the song hit me. I went back to the whole album and, shortly after, began devouring Russell’s discography.

World of Echo took the longest for me to “get.” It was so different from the folk and country stylings of Love Is Overtaking Me and Iowa Dream. Even the still-esoteric-but-accessible singer-songwriter albums like Calling Out of Context and Another Thought (now wait just a gosh darn minute…why does that sound familiar?). Knowing its significance in Russell’s catalog and the album being so…obscure… I didn’t get it.

But eventually it clicked, and it hasn’t let go. I think what made the switch was when I decided to stop trying to understand it and just let go. I needed to get lost in it. And getting lost just so happens to be my specialty.

The album is really representative of a whole facet of Russell as an artist. One of the first Another Thought essays was about the idea of the “artistic farmer” who cultivates and fixates on an idea as opposed to the farmer who seeks new horizons. Russell was definitely a cowboy. He made disco, he wrote country songs, and he created experimental opuses with his cello. World of Echo is Russell primarily accompanied only with his cello, voice, and a slew of effects pedals and studio wizardry. When people say “there’s nothing that sounds like this,” it’s often an exaggeration (you can usually at least find a Radiohead deep cut or something as a starting point), but this side of Russell really does feel unique.

It seems now that World of Echo was just a sample of this new sound Russell was creating. Some more outtakes emerged in 2023 with the astounding Picture of Bunny Rabbit, comprised of tracks from the same sessions and feeling like an alternate reality version of World of Echo. There’s so much emotion packed in songs like “Not Catching Up” that capture the hollow feeling of whatever Russell might’ve been going through. I can so vividly imagine him playing these songs in a room alone, creating his own world. For how lush and dynamic the music was, it does feel lonely. It’s stark. The songs feel like they’re searching for themselves.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that in all their beauty and imperfect perfection, the songs feel lost. Or rather, they capture what it feels like to be lost. Feeling your way through the unknown, places feeling familiar but also not. And let’s not mince the metaphor, there’s also that lost feeling where you feel like you’ve lost yourself. The emotional self-seeking. I’m not stranger to that either. It’s a lonely feeling, frustrating and quiet. Russell somehow transmutes that feeling into something beautiful.

Often when people try to translate the feeling of a daydream into music or art, I feel like they don’t quite get it right – at least not right to my experience. It often defaults into something idealized and “pretty.” Something conventionally “heavenly,” like daydreaming is this aspiration toward paradise. For me, daydreaming is a mess. It’s following a thought that morphs into something else which into something else and so on. Another thought, another thought, another thought.

And, you know, I love it. It’s the type of lost I like to be. It’s something I like about myself, to be able to let myself go into my imagination and let some idea reveal a new direction. Something hidden within me, or around me, or maybe even somewhere cosmic beyond my understanding.

Life has been hectic lately. The world has been hectic…always. And I haven’t been allowing myself enough space to get lost. Even when I was trying to get this week’s essay together (the very one you’re reading, hello there), I just stared at several half-written drafts with no idea where to go. I’d been “too focused” lately. And there is a time to focus, to hunker down. I’m trying to build new habits and follow through more on so many things. But letting go is important too.

As it would happen, a new Arthur Russell project emerged recently. A live album called Open Vocal Phrases Where Songs Come In and Out (Live 12/20/85). The performance features a mix of songs from World of Echo, Picture of Bunny Rabbit, and Another Thought as well as some I’ve never heard before. I’d tried a few times to listen to it recently and – just like my first experiences with World of Echo – I was having trouble focusing on it, even if this time I knew I’d probably love it.

I was feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and lost yesterday morning. There was so much I needed to do, so many problems I didn’t know how to solve. After dropping off my kid at school, I sat for a moment in the car and listened to the rain crash against the blue metal of my roof and the blurry streaks of my windshield. Always a soothing sound. Suddenly I felt called to put on Open Vocal Phrases and give it another try. As I drove, Russell’s meek voice introducing the songs whispered through the speakers. His cello twisted and his voice turned. The sound world he created was flipping inside out, going from one thought to the next with ease and freedom. I felt my own mind drift. I put my worries away for a moment. And alongside Russell, I got lost.

Stray Thoughts

LISTENING: Osmē - Rafræn Innriheimta

I mentioned Iceland and some friends in Reykjavík earlier—and recently, one of those friends passed along a great new project they’re working on called Osmē. Billing themselves as “heavy metal meditation,” Osmē stirs up a lot of the same feelings I get from Arthur Russell’s music. Their new tape, Rafræn Innriheimta, is a slow, beautiful crawl of an improvisational performance, recorded live at Space Odyssey—an experimental record shop and arts space in Reykjavík.

I’ve got a lot of affection for the Icelandic scene and the way it continues to foster deeply communal, deeply creative experimental music like this. It's always on my mind to visit again. Releases like this one warm my heart and remind me of how special it is. If you’re ever in Reykjavík, make time for places like Space Odyssey and other DIY venues—I promise you’ll stumble into something wonderful. If you're into bands like Earth or Bell Witch, definitely check out Osmē.

LISTENING: terraplana - natural

I guess I’ve just been in a fuzzed-out mood lately. This is the Brazilian band’s second record, and it's become a steady go-to for me. It never ceases to amaze me how popular shoegaze has become over the last few years—almost to the point of oversaturation, if I’m being honest. So when a band cuts through the noise (though… isn’t noise kind of the point?), it really grabs my attention.

Shoegaze hits hardest when it’s grounded in strong songwriting—not just effects for their own sake. And that’s exactly what makes natural work. These songs are well-crafted, packed with hooks, and dripping with emotion. The distortion and reverb are just the icing on top. But yeah, the guitar tones rule. It doesn’t get much better than this for modern shoegaze.

Self-Promo! Hey! Hey! Look at Me, Look at Me!

Vote for The Cobain 50 at The Webbys

In my day job, I co-host a podcast called The Cobain 50 with my good friend and musical comrade Martin Douglas. Each week, Martin, our teammates at KEXP, and I take a deep dive into every album on Kurt Cobain’s top 50 list. It’s been an incredible project—without even trying, we’ve ended up creating a pretty thorough document of underground music. Honestly, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever been part of.

We’re nearing the end of the series, which is bittersweet. But! We were just nominated for a Webby Award—which is actually very sweet. We’re up against some lightweights named *squints* Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and Questlove. So yeah, we could really use your vote. Help us out by voting here!

Oh—and if you’re in Seattle, come hang out! We’re hosting a live finale event on April 26 at the KEXP Gathering Space. We’ll be recording our final episode in front of an audience, and the great Seattle band somesurprises will perform covers of Nirvana and other artists from Kurt’s list. Get your tickets here!

20th Century Ambient Coming in November

My upcoming book, 20th Century Ambient, is now available for pre-order! If you’ve been enjoying the blend of music deep dives and comics in Another Thought, I think you’ll really love this.

“Through text and comics, 20th Century Ambient searches through ambient music's recent history to unearth how the genre has evolved and the role it plays in our daily lives.”

It’s out November 13, 2025 from Bloomsbury Books. Don’t miss your chance to reserve a copy now.