Au Revoir Borealis (clever name, eh?) are a four piece band fromDetroit who have played live with Jessica Bailiff, Windy & Carl,The Autumns, LN and the like. They appeared last year on volume 1 ofE+J Recordings "Sculpting Nick Drake" tribute and "Tienken" is theirself produced and released debut EP. Six tracks, half of which aretitled songs and the other half untitled instrumentals, make up the 25minutes. Points of reference for their sound, besides those they'veplayed with, might include Cocteau Twins with a dash of Sigur Ros and apinch of My Bloody Valentine. "Heavens Downward" poeticizes a nighttimesnowfall against a lush electric guitar/synth cloud and gentlebass/drums pulse. Stephanie Halpert's heavenly voice repeats 'I couldlose myself in this' as I think the same thing to myself, though I'mreferring to the music rather than the precipitation. "Waldorf TheftSong" is a tad more upbeat with more of a synth pad presence andguitars restrained to non distorted tones. Lyrically it centers aroundthe mysterious lines 'falling away into the waiting field' (or is it'into the way you feel'?) and 'the Waldorf is something I might like tosteal'. After the rhythmic synth gurgling of interlude track 4, thedeeply moody "Monolith" slowly takes shape out of the atmosphericaether. Here the words are more personal and full of longing, Halpertbegging 'hold my heart in your heart, say I can stay, can stay'. Thefinal track gracefully closes the disc with pretty de-tuned guitarnotes in an effected wash. A wonderfully emphatic and impressive debut.Here's hoping the next disc gives us much more. Be sure to play withtheir fun to navigate web site aurb.org.
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