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MI AND L'AU • Mi and L'Au
This self-titled debut takes a page from indie hush core husband / wife duo Ida, whose Will You Find Me is a standout dreamy document of a particular time in the context of a pair. Likewise, here in audio capture is Mi And L'au, cabin-bound lovers--in self-relegated exile--making relatable relationship music: all fuzzy sounding warmth, sparse instrumentation, and fragile unconventionally pretty voices twining round one another with the primitive intimacy of litter mates.
Mi and L'au respectively have backgrounds in modeling and the music industry. Having come together in a flush of ardor, the two reportedly dashed their previous lives aside and sought to live fulltime in the bubble of companionship, musical exploration and the welcome isolation that a cabin in the Finnish woods provided. While the songs were made in the heart of the bubble, the recording itself took place in Brooklyn. The aforementioned, alongside the fact that neither Mi nor L'au is a native English speaker yet records in this second tongue, adds a charmingly idiosyncratic and slightly alien quality to tunes which come across as life art of both exotic and naïf.
Gently, earnestly, on its best tracks, Mi and L'au shines when the music and the voices carry within them tangible and cellular memory of place and culture apart (Finland and France). On the tinkly twinkly music box beauty of "Philosopher," Mi and L'au together sing of the "speed of life," a twist on meaning or pronunciation. With a delivery akin to that of Damien Jurado, "There's a word in your belly," sings L'au on the song of the same name, settling in to await the tune's unfoldment with a wintry stillness. "Merry Go Round" begins as a lonely stutter, then warms with the blending of voices, and the quirkily bent blue notes strummed and thrummed. On the whole, this sleeper plays itself out with acoustic guitar, keys, and strings which wend about these just-off voices to make the bubble someplace altogether lovely and dreamy and womblike.
• Paige La Grone Babcock
return to covers listen to clips buy it here
their page at young god younggodrecords.com
hear an interview & live songs on spinning on air
