Brian McBride, the musician who was best known as half of the ambient duo Stars of the Lid, has died at age 53. Although the cause of death has yet to be revealed, McBride's death was confirmed by Star of the Lid's label, Kranky, on Sunday, August 27.
“I am deeply saddened to tell everyone that Brian McBride has passed away," the band posted on their official Facebook and Instagram pages. "I loved this guy & he will be missed."
Brian McBride, best known as half of the ambient duo Stars of the Lid, has died at age 53
Born in 1970 in Irving, Texas, McBride moved to Austin in 1990, which is where he met his future musical collaborator, Adam Wiltzie. The twosome originally formed Stars of the Lid with fellow musician Kirk Laktas, with whom they recorded their debut album, Music for Nitrous Oxide, released in 1995 on the Sedimental record label.
Although Laktas departed the lineup soon thereafter, McBride and Wiltzie moved forward with Stars of the Lost, showing the strength of their creative ties to each other by releasing an album a year for the next four years: 1996’s Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life, 1997’s The Ballasted Orchestra, 1998’s Per Aspera Ad Astra, and 1999’s Avec Laudenum.
Stars of the Lid - The Ballasted Orchestra
Stars of the Lid would continue to record beyond that rapid flurry of releases, offering up The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid in 2001, followed by And Their Refinement of the Decline in 2007, both of which were double albums. The latter album proved to be their swan song as a duo, although both McBride and Wiltzie would subsequently work on solo projects.
Among the duo’s most recognizable points of musical influence were Brian Eno and the later recordings of Talk Talk and the UK band’s frontman, Mark Hollis, but others who were cited by McBride and Wiltzie as sources of inspiration were Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and Polish film composer Zbigniew Preisner.
McBride’s debut solo album, When the Detail Lost Its Freedom, was released in 2005, followed by The Effective Disconnect – a soundtrack to the documentary Vanishing of the Bees – in 2010. A few months prior to the release of the latter album, McBride and Kenneth James Gibson released their first EP as Bell Gardens (Hangups Need Company), which was followed by two full-length albums: Full Sundown Assembly (2012) and Slow Dawns for Lost Conclusions (2014).
Brian McBride - When the Detail Lost Its Freedom
In an interview with podcast Steve Molter in 2017, McBride was struck by "the idea that my music could be important to people in times of need... Just providing an anchor or a ballast through hard times. These times are f****** hard. They're f****** hard no matter what it is that you do. And so the littlest things are of extreme importance. To think that I could be one of those little things is great."
