Linda Perhacs, the acclaimed singer-songwriter whose 1970 cult classic Parallelograms went on to influence generations of folk musicians, has been reported missing. Friends and collaborators — including her former manager Laurel Stearns, composer Julia Holter and DubLab co-founder Mark “Frosty” McNeill — say they have been unable to contact her for the past eight months.
In a statement shared with The New York Times, Stearns said the 82-year-old disappeared after she was discharged from an assisted living facility in Northridge, California, where she had been receiving care for dementia.
According to Stearns, Perhacs left the facility under the supervision of a legal guardian, but friends say repeated attempts to reach both the singer and her guardian have gone unanswered.
“Since that time, numerous friends and longtime collaborators report they have been unable to establish direct contact with her,” Stearns said in the statement. “Repeated attempts to communicate with her guardian have also, they say, gone unanswered.”
“Our main priority at this time is to spread awareness in hopes of finding Linda safe and comfortable,” Stearns added in an email.
Fernando Perdomo, who co-produced Perhacs’s two most recent albums, said he filed a report with Los Angeles County Adult Protective Services on Monday after efforts to locate the singer proved unsuccessful.
Perdomo also shared a video on social media explaining that he tried contacting Perhacs about six weeks ago, only to learn she had been removed from the care facility by her legal guardian.
“Her next of kin’s number, which we had — which we used to have contact with him — he’s not answering phone calls,” Perdomo said in the video. “I think he might have blocked us.”
Speaking with Page Six on Tuesday, Perdomo said, “My biggest fear is that she was just dropped off on the street somewhere.”
Stearns later clarified that the legal guardian referenced in her statement has been “unresponsive.” The guardian’s identity has not been disclosed.
On Monday, Stearns, Perdomo and three other collaborators issued a public appeal on social media asking anyone with information about Perhacs’s whereabouts to come forward.
“Please help us locate Linda to ensure her wellbeing,” they wrote.
Perhacs was working as a dental hygienist in Los Angeles during the late 1960s while writing songs in her spare time. Among her patients was Leonard Rosenman, the film and TV composer whose credits include East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, who helped launch her music career.
Although Parallelograms attracted little attention upon its 1970 release, it was rediscovered in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Featuring acoustic guitar with Perhacs’ multilayered vocals and subtle electronic effects provided by Rosenman, Parallelograms earned a devoted following and became a touchstone for psychedelic and experimental folk artists. Those influenced by the album include Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, and Devendra Banhart.
Perhacs’ music later reached new audiences when “If You Were My Man” appeared in Daft Punk’s 2006 film Electroma. More than four decades after her debut, Perhacs returned with The Soul of All Natural Things in 2014, followed by I’m a Harmony in 2017, both of which featured collaborations with Holter.
