AU - Verbs

The central idea behind the Au project seems to be the will of leader Luke Wyland to bring evolved elements of rock, jazz and psychedelic music back to their natural source, namely folk – a collective, multiform folk that feeds on its own sonic fruits and spits them back out in unusual, elusive shapes.

The Oregon musician obviously couldn't do without the involvement of a few musicians who have nourished their own sonic ambitions on folk.

And so members of Yellow Swans, Parenthetical Girls, A Weather, and Evolutionary Jass Band converge within the folds of “Verbs” (an album first released in a limited edition a year ago), attempting to channel their sonic roots through a freer, less formal structure, blending experimental fervor with playful pop quirks.

Yet another example of freak music, collective and ambitious, “Verbs” wins over the listener's psychological reservations thanks to an unhealthy predisposition toward the evolution-involution of its songs, which move from cryptic elements to burst into majestic choral forms, entrusted at times to voices, at times to instruments.

Conceived as a multiform body, the album achieves a convincing sense of improvisation that belongs to the compositional method of jazz and the avant-garde, thereby concealing the dense craftsmanship that organizes its disparate sonic elements, in an attempt – often a successful one – to surprise the listener without flaunting intellectual rigor, instead evoking folk-psych jam sessions: vibrato piano, cacophonous voices, tremulous guitars welcoming contributions from banjo, clarinet and accordion, while the electronic treatments, never intrusive, preserve the album's freak atmosphere.

The gospel-folk temptations of “All My Friends” and the joyful chaos of “Are Animals” offer a lively introduction to Luke Wyland's world, and his eclecticism bears remarkable fruit on the sublime “All Myself”, where piano and clarinet, with just a few carefully measured notes, achieve a striking graft of ambient and e-folk, as trombone, piano and drums swirl around, creating a sonic carousel with a distinctly Felliniesque scent.

The emotions come thick and fast: “The Waltz” binds the accordion within a jazz-psych context alongside Becky Dawson's brutally filtered voice, “Sleep” lulls the listener with unexpected candor, and “Summerheat” crosses electronics with Ecm-style sonorities in original fashion, an electronic refrain that eases the album's tension, with banjo, bass, guitar and drums conjuring a jazz-psychedelic suspension of consummate beauty.

Sensual flutes for “Prelude”, angelic, pastoral choruses on “Two Seasons”, but above all unexpected traces of tropicalia on the single “Rr. Vs.”, a festive mixture of vibrato piano, handclaps, bells and trombone, steeped in Latin American sensuality.

Like an orchestra in the forest, Au bring to life a memorable concert to which we're all invited, with body and mind indulging relentlessly. And "Verbs" fulfills many of Luke Wyland's ambitions: an original album you'll struggle to shelve after just a few listens.

P.S. The album is now also available on vinyl in two colored editions, the first yellow, the second purple.

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21/07/2009