PRESS
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Mi and L'au | Review
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brainwashed.com | Jonathan Dean a seething undercurrent of swirling, ominous atmospherics... There is an atmosphere of particularly chilly austerity on the debut album of Mi and L'au. It's not entirely unexpected from an album produced by Michael Gira, but it is somewhat unexpected after learning that Mi and L'au are friends of fellow Young God folkie Devendra Banhart, and that their album contains contributions from Akron/Family and Julia Kent. Where Devendra's latest album Cripple Crow reveled in its own expensive, high-tech studio sheen, and contained some of Banhart's most celebratory and rollicking group compositions, Mi and L'au sounds a lot closer to something that belongs on Young God records: quietly dramatic, somber chamber folk. Mi and L'au is a male/female duo existing on the imaginary border of two musical phenomena. Mi is from Finland, and consequently the music picks up a bit of that Fonal Records Finnish underground psychedelia vibe, where compositions remain loose and kaleidescopic, organic but scattershot, with a frosty nip to remind you of the hostile tundra of Mi's homeland. L'au is from Paris, and an old friend of Devendra Banhart, who wrote his song "Gentle Soul" (from Oh Me Oh My...) for L'au, as a thanks......
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Angels of Light | Review
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HARP MAGAZINE | Fred CisternaNovember 2005 Reviews Rants & Faves Akron/Family and Angels of Light Akron/Family & Angels of Light - Young God Art-punk Michael Gira (Swans, Body Lovers, Angels of Light) and Akron/Family aren't the likeliest pair. The extraordinary Brooklyn-based foursome are ecstatic, beyond-eclectic music makers, while Gira tends to craft gloomy, intense songs that offer no release. A/F have backed up Gira live and in the studio, and Gira's label, Young God, released the group's first album. On A/F's portion of this split full-length, countless sounds show up: appealing pop harmonies and Animal Collective-like vocals, Beatles grandeur and Grateful Dead vibe, gospel lift and prog riffery. A typical A/F piece mutates unpredictably, but the changes don't sound forced; they intrigue. On the disc's final five cuts, A/F successfully shift gears to accompany Gira. The group manages to gracefully maintain its identity while serving its elder's vision. A goth-country take on Dylan's "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" works nicely, and the percussion-and-chant-heavy "Mother/Father" surprises. That last track makes me think the newbies are rubbing off on the vet....
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Mi and L'au | Review
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Uncut Magazine (UK)| Louis PattisonSpectral chamber music from cabin-dwelling Finnish/French lovebirdsNOVEMBER ISSUE '05 4 star (of 5) review Mi and L'au L'au is a French musician who befriended a young Devendra Banhart while living in Paris some years back, and encouraged him to play his tentative song sketches in front of audiences. Mi is a striking Finnish model with porcelain skin and a soft, yielding voice. Recorded in the wilderness cabin they call home, these gentle lullabies are almost too slight - will o' the wisps that could get carried away on a slight breeze. But overdubbed banjo and bell, courtesy of fellow Young God artists Akron/Family, tether the likes of "Philosopher" down to beguiling effect.......
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Angels of Light radio special | WNYC's Spinning On Air
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WNYC | Spinning On Air | David Garlandlisten onlineLISTEN ONLINE HERE...
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Akron/Family | Interview Miles Seaton
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Copper Press | Jedd BeaudoinI’ll hear a melody and get a visual in my head that I’ll try to replicate with soundIssue #24 Summer 05 “It’s like the wheel is an extension of the foot,†says Akron/Family’s Miles Seaton. He’s speaking of his quartet’s fascination with the studio and the unit’s impressively prolific nature. The multi-instrumentalist band – based in New York City, by the way, with no real ties to Ohio, thanks – has amassed an impressive (much of it still unreleased) body of work since its 2002 formation in The Big Apple, a body of song that might even leave a young Lennon and McCartney baffled as to four young lads can do that. But, Seaton, continues, he doesn’t think much about it. “It’s almost like that for me where there’s a creative unconscious,†he says, then continues to point out that it never hurts to have plenty of recording equipment around. “I’ve always wished that I could plug a quarter-inch cable into my brain and run that into a tape player. The fascination with the studio, for me, is that it affords people a real window into what you’re thinking, musically. It’s a pretty mechanical relationship. It’s......