Mimi Parker, of the American alternative rock group Low, who has died aged 55 of ovarian cancer, had a voice renowned for its quiet, eerie intensity. Often blended in stunning harmonies with her bandmate and husband Alan Sparhawk, and enhanced by her delicate brushwork on the drums, her voice had an impact on the listener that was sometimes chilling, sometimes heavenly, always mesmerising.
On tracks such as In Metal, where the couple harmonised to a “degree of claustrophobic perfection”, according to a Guardian review of the 2001 album Things We Lost in the Fire, and Monkey, from The Great Destroyer (2005), later covered by Robert Plant, it was often as if they were sharing the same breath, rounding off consonants with the same control and measure.
