“Light and Low” - Lovina Falls
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
There’s something gloriously backwards about how Valerie Forgione writes music — and that’s exactly what makes “Light and Low”, the newest single from her project Lovina Falls, so arresting. Released on June 13, 2025, this lush, surreal soundscape glides in like a dream, lingers like a memory, and pushes you gently forward like a whisper from the future. The message? The world might be in shambles, but you can still move, still dance, still feel something. Maybe even joy.
Lovina Falls is Forgione’s genre-fluid dream-pop/art-rock brainchild, and “Light and Low” continues the arc of ethereal defiance she’s been drawing since the project debuted in 2023. Think baroque-pop meets post-punk at a glam-electronica rave hosted inside a haunted harpsichord — and you’re getting close. The song is a beautifully strange beast: layered, emotional, and purposefully dissonant, but never cold. It aches and glows at the same time, like a lantern swinging gently through fog.
Built around a hypnotic blend of harpsichord, electronics, piano, and shimmering tremolo guitar, the track finds its rhythm in contradiction. It’s weightless and grounded, delicate and propulsive. It feels like it’s floating, but it also moves — fast. That duality is exactly what makes the whole thing work. At its core, “Light and Low” is about navigating uncertainty with grace and guts, trusting that momentum, no matter how slow or shaky, is still a kind of power.
Forgione herself describes the track as a message to "move with conviction but head gracefully into the unknown, light and low." And that contradiction — fierce but gentle — radiates through every note and lyric. There’s no melodrama here, no overwrought angst. Instead, we get a subtle, smart exploration of how to keep going when the world feels not just heavy, but hollowed out.
Production-wise, it’s absolutely dripping with intention. Forgione plays most of the instruments herself — vocals, keys, harpsichord, bass, and programmed drums — but she’s joined by a stellar supporting cast. Todd Demma (formerly of Mistle Thrush, now with Chameleons) brings real percussion heat that snaps the song to life. Brendan Cobb’s tremolo guitar adds texture and motion. And co-producer David Minehan, who’s been a longtime collaborator, translates Forgione’s cryptic metaphors into real, radiant sonic flourishes. His chorus guitar work on this track? Chef’s kiss.
Photo Credit: Artist EPK
If “Light and Low” feels theatrical, that’s no accident. Forgione’s been a composer for theater, film, and podcasts — and it shows. This is not just a song, it’s a scene. It plays out like a moment in a story where the protagonist, having faced the abyss, picks themselves up and moves forward with quiet purpose. It’s not about triumph or arrival — it’s about survival with style.
Live, Lovina Falls becomes an entirely different beast. The recorded project, built with meticulous solo detail, explodes into a seven-person live band featuring Mistle Thrush alums and new collaborators alike. The result is a wall of sound that’s as elegant as it is overwhelming — in the best possible way. “Light and Low” is already a live favorite, and it’s easy to see why: it’s catchy, cathartic, and completely transfixing.
For longtime fans, this track feels like a spiritual sequel to Calculating the Angle of Our Descent’s opener “On Your Side,” but with more bite. More tension. More dissonance. And Forgione likes it that way. Dissonance, she says, creates a tension that reflects the world we live in — and boy, does that hit.
More than anything, “Light and Low” is a beautiful contradiction. It invites listeners to move, even if you’re unsure where you’re going. To let go of what’s no longer working. To dance in the fog. It may be born of chaos, but it offers a kind of clarity — the clarity that comes from accepting that you don’t need to have it all figured out.
So yeah, the world might be blowing up. But as long as Lovina Falls is making music like this, maybe we’ve still got something worth dancing toward.
“Light and Low” is available now on all major streaming platforms
