The estimable Western Vinyl label of Austin, TX has just released the very necessary compilation Passages: Artists in Solidarity with Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers, which benefits American Gateways and Casa Marianella, two Texas-based nonprofits dedicated to ensuring safe passage and living conditions for those in need of it. Along with the 17 artists contributing these selections, all the labor and costs related to the production, design, and manufacturing of this set were donated or fundraised separately so that all of the proceeds go to these organizations. The LP and digital are available now.
Due to the urgency of the cause that has motivated this compilation into existence, the lineup of musicians is unsurprisingly diverse, but with a tangible level of cohesiveness, as the contributors are generally part of the contemporary indie and experimental scenes. Alan Sparhawk opens the set with the gripping intensity of “No More Darkness,” utilizing just an acoustic guitar and a booming vocal.
Mexican/Colombian multihyphenate St. Panther (Daniela Bojorges-Giraldo) is next, flowing forth with a blend of art-pop and hip-hop in the vibrant “Everybody Is.” Daniel Lopatin follows with “Country,” a track whose prettiness gets expertly hassled with bursts and layers of twistedness.
Benjamin Booker, who reemerged early in 2025 with the album Lower, contributes “A Place for Us,” which is folk-bluesy with just a hint of gospel in the equation. After that is Lambchop with “Afterburner,” another cut featuring just vocals and guitar (contrasting with the sound of recent Lambchop). And then there is Quin Kirchner’s too-brief serving of ambient drift “Home,” which takes its title from the words spoken in the track by TX-based Eritrean artist Tekle Mezghebe.
Marisa Anderson’s “No Place to Rest My Head” is a solo banjo piece, exquisite in its resonant qualities. It segues perfectly into the strumming and singing, raw and powerful and beautiful, of Y La Bamba’s “Wrong Crowd,” which is itself a seamless lead-in to the striking emotional spillage of Lonnie Holley’s “A Border Is Just a Space Between Two Lines.”
Bonnie Prince Billy’s “The Autumn Wind (no. 71)” is another track where the main fault is that it’s simply too short, but the piece does sit nicely betwixt Holley’s maximal gush and the layered neo-classical cycling of Erik Hall’s “Parallels” (which itself could’ve been much longer). After that, Dirty Projectors’ “One Hundred-Twenty Dollar Song” is a super loose blend of folky string flailing and jawboning relating a story of getting pulled over for speeding whilst listening to Bo Diddley. A relatable tale.
William Tyler’s “13 Lakes” is yet more gorgeous fingerpicking from a true master of the form, Aisha Burns’s “All That I Know” is a spectacularly moody dose of indie-folk singer-songwriter-ism, and Anjou’s “Un Trayecto Largo,” similar to Quin Kirchner’s earlier piece, lays an ambient instrumental foundation for the spoken words of I. Nova, this time in Spanish.
Heather Woods Broderick’s solo folky “White Sage” is pretty and gentle as it gradually accrues in strength and tension. And then comes the steadfastly countryish atmosphere of Tim Heidecker’s “Alone Until I’m Home,” a fitting finale to a record of consistent musical vitality in service of a highly worthy cause.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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