Arroyo Low is the new solo project of LA-based bassist and producer Dane Sandborg, who will release his debut album, 2020, July 29 via Bodan Kuma Recordings. Sandborg premiered the project at SXSW, announcing the record in April with “Limousine” feat. Minoru single. Next single, “Change”, is set to arrive June 2nd. 

Straddling alternative and lo-fi electronic expressions inflected with Dane’s broad array of influences, the hugely atmospheric album will be accompanied by monthly singles and videos, art installations, and NFT content by “Change” video director Michael Rollins, culminating in a gallery-hosted album release show, July 30 in Venice Beach.

Arroyo Low began in bucolic Three Rivers, CA, to where Dane retreated during the early pandemic – “I was just really enveloped and influenced by the space and the calm that that isolation was able to create. I didn’t know I was making a record. I was making music because that’s what I wanted to do, and realized I was creating something unique to the times.” The record’s evolution, unconscious at first, continued at his studio in Topanga. Highly collaborative, with both musician friends and visual artists, Arroyo Low has blossomed into an unusually authentic multimedia expression driven by emotion rather than ambition. “It all kind of just revealed itself,” Dane recalled.

2020 features three songs with vocals by longtime collaborator Cory Yamashiro (aka Minoru), while Seigel mixed much of the record, along with playing guitar on “Windsor.” Contributing instrumentalists also include Aaron Westine, Blake McLeod, Michael Brenner, and Dylan Grombacher, plus artists Amanda Espy and Michael Rollins. “I love the chemical reactions that happen when you have musicians in a room,” said Dane. The album captures art leading the artist; bottling a mood and a moment rather than forcing what went to tape, often literally, as the album features tape machines and vintage synths, alongside an array of sometimes exotic organic instruments.

For the past decade Sandborg has been a member of the bands IRONTOM and Fox Trails, touring the globe supporting acts such as AWOLNATION, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and more.

Now what began as a creator’s lockdown indulgence is morphing into a long-term, maybe lifelong, exploration of both music and media. “It’s been a long time coming and I want to go as far as I can with it,” Dane enthused. “Who I bring around me to create, charts the course of where the music will go. It continues to evolve right in front of me.”

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