Linda Perhacs Reported Missing

Linda Perhacs, the folk singer and songwriter whose 1970 album Parallelograms found a devoted audience decades after its release, has been reported missing. A group of friends and collaborators say they last had contact with the 82-year-old musician eight months ago.

Former manager Laurel Stearns, musician Julia Holter, and dublab co-founder Mark “Frosty” McNeill shared a statement this week asking for any information about Perhacs’ location or well-being. Stearns last saw Perhacs at an assisted living facility in the San Fernando Valley, where she had resided for eight years. At some point, Perhacs was discharged into the care of legal guardians. Since then, repeated attempts to reach her have gone unanswered.

Stearns filed a missing persons report with the LAPD on June 6, but police could not share details of the investigation because she is not legally family or a caregiver with power of attorney. “The most important thing is to make sure that she’s safe and she’s comfortable,” Stearns told Pitchfork. Pitchfork has contacted the LAPD for comment.

Perhacs’ music was rediscovered in the 2000s, with her songs sampled by Daft Punk and Nas. She became an unlikely reference point for the freak-folk movement, cited by artists such as Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom. In 2014, Stearns worked on her return to recording with The Soul of All Natural Things, and a third album, I’m a Harmony, followed in 2017. Both featured collaborations with Holter.