Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe

Chicago's art and music circles have long regarded singer and multi-instrumentalist Robert A.A. Lowe—no relation to actor Rob Lowe—as a mainstay, one who apportions his energies across an array of art rock, freak folk, and quirky indie rock endeavors. He first aligned with the 90 Day Men in 1997, later assembled Dreamweapon alongside musicians drawn from Town and Country, and simultaneously launched a solo outlet under the name Lichens. Performing alone, Lowe leaned heavily on effects boxes to weave loops of guitar, percussion, and vocals into sustained, reverberant drones. Lichens issued The Psychic Nature of Being in 2005; OMNS followed in 2007, accompanied by split LPs with Lexie Mountain, Cloud Canyon, and White. Around the same time Lowe entered the unconventional rock collective Singer, whose ranks included players from U.S. Maple, Bird Show, and his former Town and Country colleague Ben Vida. The group readied Unhistories for a March 2008 release on Drag City just as Thrill Jockey Records enlisted him as a solo artist. His first album under his own name, Gyromancy, appeared in April 2008 as part of Thrill Jockey’s series of limited-edition CD/book packages, a series that also featured Daniel Higgs’ Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot and Aki Tsuyuko’s Hokane.