Two versatile artists from Philadelphia master melodies with woodland-charm enchantments to perfection, while allowing themselves a few indie detours.
It’s hard to imagine a better calling card than the lineup of artists for whom the duo @ (pronounced “at”, not “arobase”, to close the topic) has opened shows: Jessica Pratt or Cameron Winter, among others, two of the contemporary artists who know best how to transfigure the traditional forms of American music.
On their second album (and first for 4AD), Victoria Rose and Stone Filipczak, hailing from Philadelphia, substantially extend the singular experiment of Mind Palace Music (2023) by letting their syncretic influences—ranging from Neutral Milk Hotel to Vashti Bunyan—settle in, and above all by imbuing their playfully crafty gesture (their way of bending categories) with a liberating simplicity. Flutes and strings hardly mar the straightforward vitality of these woodland-spell charms—“Magic is not a tool,” reads the Earthly Love lyric.
Despite an almost un-Googable name, @ is here to stay
Sometimes incantatory, never pompous, this Autosmile carries, alongside its US indie side (I’m not in Pain, very mid-1990s), a pastoral psychedelia with a hint of English sensibility. One might, as with fellow countrymen Animal Collective, liken them to recent fascinations such as My New Band Believe or 1000 Rabbits.
Despite an almost un-Googable name, word-of-mouth around @ seems perfectly spontaneous. And, from Bird to Amity (the two gems placed at the start and end of the album), the buzz feels justified: it would be easy to settle for the gentle eccentricities of their kaleidoscopic landscapes, but far from being a mere charming curiosity, @ is here to stay.
Autosmile (4AD/Wagram). Release on October 16. Live at the Point Éphémère, Paris, on November 9.
