Photo by Ben Saren
Yesterday, August 4, Bandcamp donated 100 percent of their sales for the day to the Transgender Law Center, a nonprofit organization that works on policy advocacy and litigation for trans people on a number of fronts. A few hours after that started, Liz Harris—better known as Grouper—shared a new song on the streaming platform, with profits going to the Sylvia Rivera Law Center, Transgender Law Center and Trans Assistance Project."Children" is a haunting, hushed track that Harris says was discarded from her beautiful and immersive 2014 album Ruins because it didn't quite fit. "Towards the end of making Ruins, I wrote a song that never made it onto the album," she wrote on Bandcamp. "Though it felt aesthetically similar, something about the content and energy felt distinct in a way that didn't fit the rest of the music. I pushed it away, unsure what to do with it, and eventually forgot I'd recorded it. This year, amidst chaotic and painful political times, while working on another project, it reemerged and made more sense."While "Children" does follow Ruins' piano-melody solitariness, it's easy enough to see Harris's thought process after a few listens. Those "darker political times" are bedded in when she half-whispers, ""How we turn in the shadows / Murdering the world in our sleep." It's every bit as beautiful as anything on Ruins, it's just stuck under a heavier shadow.That 24-hour stretch has come to an end now. So, listen to "Children" below, then go buy it for a buck on Bandcamp. You can donate to the Sylvia Rivera Law Center here, the Transgender Law Center here, and the Trans Assistance Project right here.Follow Alex Robert Ross on Twitter.
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