birds beak by birds beak

Perhaps our favorite album of 2019 (already!).

birds beak are an experimental duo made up of members Meg Kepley and Lars Gardner. "birds beak" is their debut album.

Both Gardner and Kepley are graduates of the University of Tulsa School of Music. Gardner studied composition and Kepley graduated with a degree in performance (violin, specifically). While in school, the two had spent a fair amount of time collaborating before officially debuting their first official project together.

birds beak are a project whose sound can at times be difficult to describe due to the diverse amount of sonic influences present in its music. Upon first listen, one will immediately be struck by the atmospheric ambience of the album. Extremely soundscape-esque, with a tendency to give the listener deep feelings of pensiveness and nostalgia while conjuring images of lost times, places, and faces. Somber and melancholy, yet also bright and hopeful. There are moments where Gardner and Kepley's conventional classical training shine through expertly on songs, truly highlighting their knowledge of the craft. But simultaneously, we find that the unconventional frequently dominates the sonic landscape of the tracks. Out-of-the-box styles of music and sound, such as noise and experimental, make up a huge amount of the pieces presented by birds beak. Though, would it be fair to shove birds beak's debut in to these genres and define the project solely by them? No, absolutely not. But it is undeniable that the ambience and atmosphere present in their tracks is largely rooted in an appreciation of experimental and noisy styles that are then very competently blended with classical and more conventional (perhaps, academic) styles of music. What we have here is an album that takes some of the fringier and/or less approachable modern styles of music and collages them in to a gorgeous soundscape that is reminiscent of something perhaps more along the lines of a film or indie video game soundtrack than a stand alone album. Rich, passionate, powerful, yet also gentle, delicate, and vulnerable. birds beak are all of these things and more. This is a release that is so beautiful and profound that it could be appreciated by almost any audience, regardless of their musical upbringing and regardless of wether they have interest in some of birds beak's sonic influences.

Easily our most highly recommended listen right now.

Well done Lars and Meg, you've really crafted a wonderful album here and we are so proud and so thrilled to be able to share it with everyone. Thank you !

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Rare and limited releases of all genres since 2015.

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