i EP by Eaux - Morning Ritual [MRR004] FLAC download included with physical items

i EP

Eaux

A 5 track experimental ep (27m 4s) — released November 19th 2012 on Morning Ritual

#alternative #experimental

After their acclaimed double A-side debut single 'Luther / No

More Power', Morning Ritual is pleased to announce the release debut EP from Eaux - 'i EP' .

Eaux is the new creation of Sian Ahern, Stephen Warrington and Ben Crook. Forming from the ashes of cult band Sian Alice Group, the trio's music is made up of drum pads, samplers, percussive sequencers, multiple synths, guitar and bass, all cycling in waves beneath Ahern's voice.

Structuring their songs to work with the constraints of the live setting, the trio switch between instruments, sounds and rhythmic patterns. From within this musical framework, Ahern's crystalline vocals effortlessly weaves together understated Pop melodies with elements of folk, 60's bubblegum and psych, early German electronic music and British industrial & post punk, and the analogue era of Detroit techno.

'The EP is a beautiful, somewhat forgotten format. It's kind of like a novella or a taster menu' says Sian. 'There's more freedom to express ideas across this medium length format, and as a listener, I've always loved EPs - there's something much more personal about them'.

' i ' presents 5 new songs, each structured from an improvisational starting point. Developing, refining and reworking these initial improvisations is a necessary process 'but only up to a point... that they remain open to us to enjoy in a live context is really important' says Warrington, 'for example, 'i' was deliberately half-written when we recorded it, so there was room for improvisation. The playing and the writing happened in parallel.'

With key structures of the song planned out they were left un-demoed instead waiting until they were in front of vintage analogue equipment in a studio before recording anything. 'Maybe it's a reaction against the laptop producer trend,' says Crook. 'All of these songs were sketched out and gigged before they were recorded, which seems quite novel these days. Giving yourself limitations can be far more liberating than infinite possibilities - and much more reflective of the live experience, which

is a huge part of what we're about. The only way to capture that noise and electricity, and all of the associated vibe, is to play it live.'

'If we can't play a part live in the room together at the same time, it seems wrong to add in later', says Ahern, whose vocal lines are born of the same improvisational methods as the instrumentation, placing phonetics over the semantic which follow subconscious lines-of-thought towards glimmers of narrative drama - "It feels less thought about, more automatic. For me it was transcendental - trancing out without too much work and effort."

Ahern’s crystalline vocals guide the way towards oblivion. - Pitchfork

Rising from the ashes of Sian Alice Group, Eaux continue to sound enthralling encapsulating that dark, bewitching spirit perfectly, slowly drawing you in with Sian’s gliding vocals and the delicate, unobtrusive accompaniment from her band. - Abeano

Seaux good - Noisey

An EP for fans of Chromatics... It drifts and trickles and then swells in a semi-meditative manner, and yet feels like a cousin of dance music that had an aunt that was massively into sound installation art. On each of the tracks here, Eaux take the gentle grace of various recent ambient and drone movements and fuse them with something that widescreen and euphoric. There’s elements of Oneohtrix Point Never off-setting the spiralling fizz of Factory Floor and Fuck Buttons. There’s that similar chill and a made-you-gasp awe you can also hear on tracks from Fever Rey to White Hinterland to Kate Wax and beyond. Silky beats and a general sense of shimmering is what they do do. Grainy. Dreamy. Better-than-most-new-bands-y. - Drowned In Sound

Sian's unique and mesmerising voice provides the perfect counterpart for understated pop sounds with elements of folk, 60s psych, avant pop and early British Industrial. - Dazed and Confused

The group's dark-side fixations bring to mind the smoky grandeur of contemporaries like Balam Acab, Beak>, and Zola Jesus, but i never sounds bleak for the sake of being bleak. The sweeping, trance-tinged new wave of "New Peaks" radiates wide-screen optimism, and the cozy "Snow," with its muted Rhodes keyboard, recalls the intimate bedroom pop of Nicolas Jaar. - SPIN Magazine

Eaux are the kind of band that deserve to be listened to properly: in pitch black as you sit in private at 1am, giving the music your full attention. It’s then that the dark, brooding electronics can take full, gripping effect - DIY Magazine

The EP is as crystalline and as unique as the archetypal snowflake itself – there are ingenious flourishes of inspiration, melodies so delicate they feel like they’d melt to the touch and a hypothermic sense of warmth in all its frosty open spaces. All this proves that it’s the evolutionary process itself that actually makes this record so engaging (rather than alienating) for its listener, as the experimental newness of each sound rings through, giving it an innovative sparkle. - Dummy

An enigmatic diversity of synthetic textures and protracted tension-building. - The Fader

Beautifully dark - Tom Ravenscroft BBC 6Music

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