Quiet Friend is a collaboration between guitarist-synthesist Steven Rogers, producer-songwriter Nick Zanca of Mister Lies (Orchid Tapes), and about a dozen contributors. The group's self-titled debut navigates intimacy, social anxiety, and queer identity through honest and elegant indie-pop. Their sound is indebted to hi-fi greats like Prefab Sprout and The Blue Nile, as well as the experimental pop of Arthur Russell. With "percolating synths, cascading guitar motifs, and melancholic strings," says Dimestore Saints, Quiet Friend is "an audiophile’s dreamscape." It's out on Elestial Sound.