AU - Versions

Luke Wyland doesn't take the usual routes to realize his avant-folk project: after dismantling the lineup of the debut "Au" and after crossing paths with some twenty skilled musicians for the folk-psychedelic collective behind "Verbs", he now plays with a modernist rereading of five tracks drawn from previous albums plus one new, boldly fascinating piece.

Only Dana Valatka contributes her unpredictable rhythms to satisfy the progressive urges of Au's new sound, while the rest is in the capable hands of the leader, who reshapes the songs' structures to excellent effect. Luke Wyland's imagination takes over, with technique and formal perfection set aside in favor of greater compositional flexibility.

"All Myself" is the album's emotional triumph: stripping the track of its refined arrangement choices, Luke Wyland distills its sonic skeleton down to a handful of piano notes, the voice drawing out emotion without hesitation, the song gliding over classicizing atmospheres that recall Antony & The Johnsons and Marc & The Mambas — just a few sonic elements immersed in a sound-hypnosis of rare beauty.

Much the same path is taken by "Death", which renews itself by abandoning the elegiac tone of the original version to introduce noise elements that stand out like the first rays of light amid the folds of suffering and desolation.

"Rr Vs. D" and "Are Animals", though stripped of their original architecture and roughed up by spurious sounds, still retain harmonic and melodic coordinates with psychedelic, grandiloquent traits.

The new track "Ida Walked Away" is the first pop song ever written by Luke Wyland, a whirl of riffs that's never linear yet surprisingly hummable.

Au's new sonic direction seems not only sharper and more creative, but also richer in innovative solutions that, taken together, add up to a musical triumph wrapped in a package that looks deceptively minor and inessential.

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28/04/2010