Customer Reviews

Mi & L'au

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The sound is sparse but quite complex. The cd is simply gorgeous. All of the songs are calm and meditative but vary in approach - This is where the complexity of these artists shine through. It's mostly smooth female vocals and guitar accompanied by a bit of delicate and carefully considered orchestrations and flourishes.

It hovers close to being some sort of soft folk music. However the sound they've created has a darker edge than any folk music. It's this edge that makes their sound so very innovative and cool. The smooth female vocals are reminiscent of Mazzy Star/Hope Sandoval in her later years with the Warm Inventions. Fans of His Name Is Alive will be brought back to the early 1990's when Karin Oliver was the lead singer. The intermittent male vocals are just as good, add a lot to their sound, and complement the female vocals well.

Nevermind the whole 'cabin in the woods' marketing pitch. This creative chillout CD opens the door to a new folk(ish)genre in music that I hope more artists explore.

This debut release from Mi & Lau is quite impressive.Filled w/ spare,accoustic pieces with haunting melodies featuring beautiful vocals (mostly female but, with some wonderful male vocals as well).

This duo is one to watch for.Expect great things if this lovely first release is any indication !

Somewhere on the outer fringes of the neo-freak-indie-alt-folk scene (wow, four hyphens!) you'll find a Finnish gal named Mi and a French guy named L'au who write songs. In Finland. In a cabin. In the woods. (Presumably that's a photo of the place on the CD cover... brrrr...)

This may remind you a little of the legendary (yet obscure) folk singer Vashti Bunyan, who wrote the music on her rediscovered classic Just Another Diamond Day while living in a commune in Scotland. (More than 35 years later, she recently released a second album, Lookaftering -- and she now lives in Edinburgh instead of a hippie commune. Times change...)

While there are certainly comparisons to be made between these reclusive artists, the music created in Mi and L'au's remote cabin is far removed from the idyllic and gentle world evoked by Vashti. Two people (even as photogenic as this duo) do not a commune make, and these songs appropriately posses a decidedly claustrophobic quality... you can almost feel the walls closing in on you after a while... and the wind howling through the rafters... and the candlelight flickering in the darkness... Um, when's the next flight out of here?

I really wanted to like Mi and L'au, since I love the idea of two people writing songs together in a Nordic cabin in the middle of nowhere. And I do like this album... to an extent. It's just that the pervasive mood of dread, darkness, and world-weariness is not what I expected (or wanted) to hear.

The other problem is that the post-production overdubbed instrumentation (added later on in "the wilds of Brooklyn") often just gets in the way. Yes, there are some nice recorder melodies (Vashti's influence again?) and some lovely string arrangements (though the repeated lyric "there's a world in your belly" is not destined to be a classic.) Too often, however, toy pianos, zithers, brass and electronics clutter up the mix. Again, not what I expected from two people who live "in complete isolation with the barest of essentials" -- taking the same approach with their music would have been far more effective.

If you're after a blissful acoustic escape from worldly troubles, you're better off listening to Vashti Bunyan's Just Another Diamond Day and Lookaftering. If you're into the Devendra Banhart/Animal Collective scene and/or in the mood for a stark, wintry, brooding listen, you might want to seek out this debut album from Mi and L'au. And hopefully they'll cheer up a bit and record a sunnier, more spacious second album soon (rather than 35 years from now!)