Au Revoir Simone
Doug Fir Lounge
07/20/2014 09:00 PM PDT
$14.00 - $16.00
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Supporting Acts: Dresses, The Lower 48
Au Revoir Simone
Au Revoir Simone makes dreamy electronic pop music using elemental materials: keyboards and voices braid together in a warm thrum of whirring machines and soft melodies.
Heather D'Angelo, Erika Forster and Annie Hart started getting together to play keyboards in Erika's apartment in 2003. It wasn't long before Erika's living room was filled with vintage Casios and Yamahas rescued from garage sales, plus a beautiful wooden drum machine inherited from a movie set.
The girls were fascinated by how easily composing came to them when they were together. Sometimes each would bring in her own idea for a song, and they would all work together until they agreed it felt perfect. Other times, they would play until a song emerged from hours of experimentation.
Au Revoir Simone still writes songs in this highly collaborative manner. Because everyone plays the same instrument, the composing process can be more challenging than some may realize, but the band's central motivation remains: music is magical. And playing it is a form of meditation — a blissful sensation that carries over to the listener.
In early 2008, the band took a break from touring and began writing new material. Produced by Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Little Joy) and recorded in various studios between Brooklyn, NY, and Los Angeles, CA, the result is the group's third album, Still Night, Still Light, released on the band's own label, Our Secret Record Company.
Although it features songs written by all three members, the album has a strong thematic cohesion. The more expansive arrangements of The Bird of Music have given way to a new intimacy, one that cherishes reflection, seeking, questioning and losing one's place on the page while looking for the right way home. It also juxtaposes some of the band's quietest moments (the glacial grace of "The Last One") with some of its most raucous (the dizzying exuberance of "Anywhere You Looked"). Still Night, Still Light captures the band at its most exposed, relying on keyboards, drum machines and effortless voices to create a folk record without folk instruments, one that hums with resilience and wonder.
Venue Information
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E. Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97214
http://www.dougfirlounge.com/