Lou Turner - Microcosmos (2022) [Hi-Res]

What does it mean to be a traveler in a fixed place? An adventurer in domestic space? A troubadour in a confined microcosm, or a constellation of microcosmsthat is, a microcosmos? These are the questions Nashville musician, songwriter, and published poet Lou Turner (aka Lauren Turner, Styrofoam Winos) was reflecting on as she wrote her luminous third solo album, Microcosmos.

She says of the cosmic country record, "Musically, these songs are mostly in the country/folk vein of the 70s songwriter but lyrically they're challenging some of those tropes or totally subverting them altogether, talking about commitment and lovethe small microcosmic things that make up the fabric of everything."

With her warm and welcoming voice and nylon-stringed acoustic guitar foregrounded over sparse yet playful arrangements, Microcosmos is a meditation on what it means to privilege cultivation over consumption and to ponder larger realities from within the shell of the fixed reality of a home. The reward is the adventure to be found in stillness and observation, the discovery of the otherworldly in earthly matter, the revelations of groundedness. Turner generously offers up these wonders to the listener, sharing hers, and inviting us to find our own.