Aurore Rien - 'Telesthesia' (2001)

Aurore Rien - 'Telesthesia' (2001)

1) Hindsight 20/20

2) Hearts Murmur Under Halogen Lights

3) Breakaway, Sydney

4) Sunsets, I Have Seen Too Many Without You

Aurore Rien was a post-rock band that I believe was from Wisconsin. Two of the members went on to form Wisconsin-based ambient music project Lights Out Asia, which leads me to believe that Aurore Rien was from the same state. At any rate, these are the unsung heroes of vocal post-rock (a bit oxi-moronic, but you get what I mean). They released a full-length album called 'Sedative for the Celestial Blue' in 1999, and then this EP in 2001.

"Hindsight 20/20" has always been my favorite song by this band. It's relatively long, as are all the songs on this EP (they're all about 8 or 9 minutes). There are a lot of sections with repeating phrases, and the first track on this album uses that most effectively in my opinion. There is a repeated guitar phrases that gets gradually more intense until it ends at 2:35. Later, there is a portion where the singer repeats a phrase that I understand to be "Let's stay here tonight". At the part where the guitar becomes distorted, the vocals become more reverberated, which helps to create quite a chilling atmosphere.

The rest of the album includes similarly repetitive musical phrases, but there's a subtle build and change with each time. The vocals are used more as an instrument than as a way to express lyrics or words. It's almost like a compromise between the original Bark Psychosis-esque "post-rock" and the then-new sound of bands like Explosions in the Sky. The track "Breakaway, Sydney" also includes a sample of a speech made by John L. Lewis, a former Head of the Union Mine Workers. The speech was made before the U.S. Congress in 1947.

Aurore Rien is a somehow forgotten band that exemplified the turning point for post-rock music by combing sounds of the mid-1990's to the new sounds of the early 2000's. This album is a really great one, and I would highly recommend it.

RIYL: Bark Psychosis, Jeniferever, Explosions in the Sky