Lichens (musician)

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Lichens is the stage name of Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, an American musician, composer, and sound artist from the United States. He creates improvised music using voice and modular synthesizers, often in live performances.

Lowe used to be in the band 90 Day Men. His first release as Lichens, The Psychic Nature of Being, was a three-track improvisation recorded without overdubs. In 2007 he released Omns, a follow-up that used different recording and editing techniques.

Since 2007, Lowe has focused on live performance and the physicality of sound, releasing many records and collaborating with others. In 2008 he toured with Explosions in the Sky and played at All Tomorrow’s Parties. He also played bass and provided vocals for the noise-rock group Singer on two Drag City albums with fellow musicians Todd Rittmann, Adam Vida, and Ben Vida.

Lowe contributed tambura and vocals for the band Om on their albums God Is Good and Advaitic Songs, and performed with them on stage. He sang on Twilight’s Monument to Time End. In 2012 he contributed the tracks Shoreline Scoring and Faeries to the film Miss Lovely by Ashim Ahluwalia.

He has worked under different names — as Lichens and as Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe — and collaborates across experimental music, noise, and post-rock.