Harboring a deep-seated love of keyboards and vintage drum machines, Brooklyn trio Au Revoir Simone -- Heather D'Angelo, Erika Forster, Annie Hart - made their worldwide debut back in late 2005 when their mini album, Verses of Comfort, Assurance and Salvation, was quietly released on various labels the world over (Moshi Moshi in the UK, Rallye in Japan, self-released in America). Offering up a generous helping of charm and intelligence, Verses... was a welcome lesson in what expertly layered synths, ethereal vocals, and palpitating drum machine disco beats should sound like when properly woven together. Rich in Suicides-esque melancholy and melody, the girls instantly emerged as a remedy of sorts to a then prevailing climate of male guitar band after not-so-dissimilar male guitar band.
But obviously, the story starts before that. Au Revoir Simone began in the Fall of 2003 when Erika and Annie first became acquainted on a long train ride home to NYC from a weekend getaway with friends. Discovering a common desire to form an all-keyboard band (eureka!), Erika and Annie started meeting regularly to play music. Soon, their mutual friend Heather joined their pack at informal bedroom band practices as they prepared for their first shows that winter. A romantic notion it may be, but fate, you might say, had a hand in their meeting -- born out of a common love of synths, Au Revoir Simone came to be.
The band has come a long way since their inception back in 2003 however. Since their first trip to Europe and Japan a little over a year ago, ARS have undertaken a ton of their own shows in their native city, as well as an extensive tour of the US, Canada and Europe supporting fellow Brooklyn-ites We Are Scientists. Consequently, live they are tighter and more musically accomplished than ever before. And of course there's the small matter of their first LP proper, The Bird Of Music...
Written and recorded in Brooklyn over the past year (bar "I Couldn't Sleep," which Erika recorded with her boyfriend in Japan last winter), Au Revoir Simone's debut album more than follows through on the promise Verses... represented. No less charming, nor no less steeped in dreams, hopes and lovelorn wishes than its 2005 forerunner, the band's long awaited LP is a more instantly uplifting and accomplished record from its opening bars and onwards. The band's signature sound remains defined by their instrumentation (vintage drums machines, keyboards and layered vocals form the mainstay of their music-making), yet their musicianship has moved on by leaps and bounds. Whereas Verses, for all intents and purposes, formed a basic (albeit enchanting) collection of the band's favorite songs "pulled together" from their first year together as musicians, all of the tracks on TBOM were composed with the knowledge that they would lay side by side on one album -- a fact which fundamentally lent itself to a far more cohesive mode of song writing. More than anything, TBOM proves quite how much they have progressed as a band.
When they set out to make this record, the girls were intent on creating something which sounded more lush, complex, warm and organic than Verses. They wanted to transform their electronic instruments into something that felt far more alive, with more depth. They took a playful and experimental approach to the recording process, playing a much broader range of instruments (virbrapone/Wurlitzer/claves/cymbals/wood blocks/more percussive instruments than you could possibly imagine...), and hiring session musicians (to play trumpet, trombone, violin and cello), all of which added dimensions they'd never really sought to include in their music before. Seeking the vibrancy and depth of sound that an analogue studio provides, the record was mixed to half-inch tape at Brooklyn's Headgear Studios.
Album opener "The Lucky One" rings out with a chorus of "let the sunshine, let it come...," and from this moment onwards, it seems to set a positively forthright tone for this LP. A reflection on the past/a past relationship, but also about feeling joyful for the present moment and for the passing of time in general, it seems a fitting introduction to the themes and narratives contained within the album as a whole. TBOM seems to chart a cycle of human experience, thought and emotion -- friendship, love, loss, joy, frivolity, pure happiness, pure sadness, guilt, restlessness and contentedness. "Fallen Snow" is textbook ARS melancholy, albeit instantly a standout, aurally upbeat track. Written from the perspective of one of Heather's best friends -- "a guy who moves from one doomed relationship to the next" - it refers to a specific conversation the pair had during which the friend in question attempted to explain and rationalize his alarmingly enduring habit of hanging on to "bad" relationships until the springtime, merely to avoid having to deal with the depression of being cold and fundamentally, alone. Heartbreakingly simple yet effective in its structure, melody and tone, "Fallen Snow" is at once a tear shed in honour of a deadened heart (and subsequently a failed relationship), and an ode to self belief, "self truth," and essentially, love (lost, found, and not yet sought).
"A Violent Yet Flammable World" is another instantly infectious track. Fluttering heartbeat drums, harmonies, and sweeping keyboards form its core. It was inspired by the band's trip to Iceland Airwaves in 2005 -- in Heather's words: "the people and landscapes were so inspiring it was impossible not to write a song about it." "Dark Halls," although thematically gloomy, forms the intro to their "dance section" at the band's live shows, together with the following track "Night Majestic" - Heather's song about horse races(!). "Lark" resets the meditative tone - a song about fate, decisions and the strange way our lives can take any manner of directions. Closing track "The Way to There" is a suitably ambitious note on which to end. At the time of its creation, surprisingly enough, Heather was seriously into prog rock. She really wanted to write something at least 6 minutes long and suitably epic-sounding, "ideally performed one day by an orchestra and a full boy's choir ... kind of like late 80's/early 90's Michael Jackson when he's at his most indulgent (think "Earth Song") mixed with early Genesis and Bjork's Homegenic." The idea finally came to her whilst hiking through the Amazon jungle in Peru of all places: beat first, then melody. Not exactly well placed to set her ideas down on paper or instrument, Heather made her fellow hikers memorize chunks of the track she had composed in her head so as not to forget it by the time she could finally sit down in front of a piano and thrash it out in full. A collective endeavour in the truest sense of the word then, it was well worth the effort. Fittingly, the accompanying lyrics are about astrophysics (Heather is in fact a student of the subject).
Au Revoir Simone has carved out a place for themselves as a band who craft a 3D world of texture, taste and smell through narrative, melody and the overwhelming sense of "atmosphere" of time and place embedded in their music. ARS are a band with an essential respect for order and simplicity, but who also dabble in experimentation and playfulness. They take their inspiration from all manner of things: place (Brooklyn and their musical peers contained therein/Iceland and the depths of the Peruvian jungle, as previously noted), people, life experiences, and other artists. Au Revoir Simone's music is a profound mix of innocence and maturity, playfulness and insight: the wholly endearing, not to mention welcome, girlish fantasies which color TBOM are ultimately tempered by the band's philosophical and witty musings on life, love and friendship. The Bird of Music is a heart-melting, spirit-raising, bona fide grand accomplishment. Listen well.
But obviously, the story starts before that. Au Revoir Simone began in the Fall of 2003 when Erika and Annie first became acquainted on a long train ride home to NYC from a weekend getaway with friends. Discovering a common desire to form an all-keyboard band (eureka!), Erika and Annie started meeting regularly to play music. Soon, their mutual friend Heather joined their pack at informal bedroom band practices as they prepared for their first shows that winter. A romantic notion it may be, but fate, you might say, had a hand in their meeting -- born out of a common love of synths, Au Revoir Simone came to be.
The band has come a long way since their inception back in 2003 however. Since their first trip to Europe and Japan a little over a year ago, ARS have undertaken a ton of their own shows in their native city, as well as an extensive tour of the US, Canada and Europe supporting fellow Brooklyn-ites We Are Scientists. Consequently, live they are tighter and more musically accomplished than ever before. And of course there's the small matter of their first LP proper, The Bird Of Music...
Written and recorded in Brooklyn over the past year (bar "I Couldn't Sleep," which Erika recorded with her boyfriend in Japan last winter), Au Revoir Simone's debut album more than follows through on the promise Verses... represented. No less charming, nor no less steeped in dreams, hopes and lovelorn wishes than its 2005 forerunner, the band's long awaited LP is a more instantly uplifting and accomplished record from its opening bars and onwards. The band's signature sound remains defined by their instrumentation (vintage drums machines, keyboards and layered vocals form the mainstay of their music-making), yet their musicianship has moved on by leaps and bounds. Whereas Verses, for all intents and purposes, formed a basic (albeit enchanting) collection of the band's favorite songs "pulled together" from their first year together as musicians, all of the tracks on TBOM were composed with the knowledge that they would lay side by side on one album -- a fact which fundamentally lent itself to a far more cohesive mode of song writing. More than anything, TBOM proves quite how much they have progressed as a band.
When they set out to make this record, the girls were intent on creating something which sounded more lush, complex, warm and organic than Verses. They wanted to transform their electronic instruments into something that felt far more alive, with more depth. They took a playful and experimental approach to the recording process, playing a much broader range of instruments (virbrapone/Wurlitzer/claves/cymbals/wood blocks/more percussive instruments than you could possibly imagine...), and hiring session musicians (to play trumpet, trombone, violin and cello), all of which added dimensions they'd never really sought to include in their music before. Seeking the vibrancy and depth of sound that an analogue studio provides, the record was mixed to half-inch tape at Brooklyn's Headgear Studios.
Album opener "The Lucky One" rings out with a chorus of "let the sunshine, let it come...," and from this moment onwards, it seems to set a positively forthright tone for this LP. A reflection on the past/a past relationship, but also about feeling joyful for the present moment and for the passing of time in general, it seems a fitting introduction to the themes and narratives contained within the album as a whole. TBOM seems to chart a cycle of human experience, thought and emotion -- friendship, love, loss, joy, frivolity, pure happiness, pure sadness, guilt, restlessness and contentedness. "Fallen Snow" is textbook ARS melancholy, albeit instantly a standout, aurally upbeat track. Written from the perspective of one of Heather's best friends -- "a guy who moves from one doomed relationship to the next" - it refers to a specific conversation the pair had during which the friend in question attempted to explain and rationalize his alarmingly enduring habit of hanging on to "bad" relationships until the springtime, merely to avoid having to deal with the depression of being cold and fundamentally, alone. Heartbreakingly simple yet effective in its structure, melody and tone, "Fallen Snow" is at once a tear shed in honour of a deadened heart (and subsequently a failed relationship), and an ode to self belief, "self truth," and essentially, love (lost, found, and not yet sought).
"A Violent Yet Flammable World" is another instantly infectious track. Fluttering heartbeat drums, harmonies, and sweeping keyboards form its core. It was inspired by the band's trip to Iceland Airwaves in 2005 -- in Heather's words: "the people and landscapes were so inspiring it was impossible not to write a song about it." "Dark Halls," although thematically gloomy, forms the intro to their "dance section" at the band's live shows, together with the following track "Night Majestic" - Heather's song about horse races(!). "Lark" resets the meditative tone - a song about fate, decisions and the strange way our lives can take any manner of directions. Closing track "The Way to There" is a suitably ambitious note on which to end. At the time of its creation, surprisingly enough, Heather was seriously into prog rock. She really wanted to write something at least 6 minutes long and suitably epic-sounding, "ideally performed one day by an orchestra and a full boy's choir ... kind of like late 80's/early 90's Michael Jackson when he's at his most indulgent (think "Earth Song") mixed with early Genesis and Bjork's Homegenic." The idea finally came to her whilst hiking through the Amazon jungle in Peru of all places: beat first, then melody. Not exactly well placed to set her ideas down on paper or instrument, Heather made her fellow hikers memorize chunks of the track she had composed in her head so as not to forget it by the time she could finally sit down in front of a piano and thrash it out in full. A collective endeavour in the truest sense of the word then, it was well worth the effort. Fittingly, the accompanying lyrics are about astrophysics (Heather is in fact a student of the subject).
Au Revoir Simone has carved out a place for themselves as a band who craft a 3D world of texture, taste and smell through narrative, melody and the overwhelming sense of "atmosphere" of time and place embedded in their music. ARS are a band with an essential respect for order and simplicity, but who also dabble in experimentation and playfulness. They take their inspiration from all manner of things: place (Brooklyn and their musical peers contained therein/Iceland and the depths of the Peruvian jungle, as previously noted), people, life experiences, and other artists. Au Revoir Simone's music is a profound mix of innocence and maturity, playfulness and insight: the wholly endearing, not to mention welcome, girlish fantasies which color TBOM are ultimately tempered by the band's philosophical and witty musings on life, love and friendship. The Bird of Music is a heart-melting, spirit-raising, bona fide grand accomplishment. Listen well.
