AU (pronounced “ay-you”) is the work of multi-instrumentalist/singer Luke Wyland. Begun in 2005 while finishing up his degree in Art in the city of Boston. Currently a full time duo with Dana Valatka on drums (Jackie-O-Motherfucker, Mustaphamond) and set in Portland, OR, AU features a sound that is vast and represents a narrow bridge between backwoods freak-folk and Eno-esque art-pop. Since the release of its critically acclaimed debut album in 2007, it has become a road worn live act who have been touring incessantly for the last few years throughout the US and Europe with great bands like Deerhoof, the Dodos and WHY?. AU has released two LP’s (“Au” and “Verbs”) including an earlier solo album under the moniker ‘luc’ entitled “peaofthesea” (Aagoo 2005). Following a lengthy 2009 tour, AU returned to their hometown to record their latest album, “Both Lights”. With over two years in the making, rather than sounding like a tough record to make, the album is striking precisely because it feels so animated, so triumphant. Exploding from the blocks with the uplifting ‘Epic’, “Both Lights” draws its power from this process of renewal, erupting joyously into life.
COM TRUISE is one of the many personas of producer and designer Seth Haley, born and raised in upstate New York but living and working in New Jersey. An admitted synth obsessive, Com Truise is the maker of an experimental and bottom heavy style he calls “mid-fi synth-wave, slow-motion funk”. Haley’s been making music on the side for roughly a decade — going through pseudonyms like toothbrushes (Sarin Sunday, SYSTM, Airliner) — first as a DJ, and currently, as an excavator of softer, window-fogging synth-wave. But, the COM TRUISE project isn’t just nostalgia capitalization. Yes, there are fragments of Joy Division, New Order, and the Cocteau Twins, but it’s like you’re hearing them through the motherboard of a waterlogged Xbox: it all sounds demented and modern. The first Com Truise release was the “Cyanide Sisters” EP — distributed for free on the AMdiscs label. After that came a single, “Pyragony/Trypyra,” and a series of eclectic podcast mixes titled “Komputer Cast”. His first LP, “Galactic Melt” was released on the Ghostly imprint in 2011, receiving tremendous reviews all over the net.
Concert / Rock & Experimental Au + com truise
