Their music is carefully crafted and performed brilliantly; it is touching, cinematic and enchanting, not to mention wonderfully experimental.
Dark Dark Dark are a hybird of musicians from New York, New Orleans and Minneapolis, including the magnificent lead vocalist and piano and accordion artist Nona Marie Invie, supported by the vocals and multi-instrumentist Marshall LaCount (banjo, piano, clarinet), two choir singers, Jonathan Kaiser on cello, and multi-instrumentalist Water McClements (piano, trumpet and accordion), plus the talents of drummer Brett Bullion and bassist Todd Chandler.
The new EP from the chamber folk sextet Dark Dark Dark is a wonderful follow-up to their widely heralded debut album, The Snow Magic, in 2008.
It’s another winner and a tease for a sophomore album slated to be released later this year. The band is musically advanced in both songwriting and performance, Invie’s splendid and moving lead vocals are at the center, the music incorporates many styles and is always inventive, at times gypsy-like, theatrical, tragic, joyful, and, of course, dark – all accomplished with remarkable sophistication and what would otherwise be a contradiction – an uncanny rawness.
We listened to Bright Bright Bright a number of times and enjoy it more with each subsequent spin. Marshall LaCount summed up the new EP as a conceptual piece “about a character finding a place in the world, and the strange interactions that happen along the way.”
Dark Dark Dark has also be wildly successful on the road, touring with one of our favorite, still really indie bands WHY? The EP was recorded on analog at the suggestion of Minneapolis producer Tom Herbers (WHY?, Low, Retribution Gospel Choir, The Jayhawks, Fog) who wanted to capture the band’s live chemistry on analog equipment from start to finish. “Recording like this allowed so much room for musicality, warmth and energy,” Herbers said.
Dark Dark Dark has been recording new material for the upcoming LP at the historic Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis with Herbers, and are currently touring their way to Austin next week where they are slated to perform at three shows for the South by Southwest music festival.
“Bright Bright Bright” by Dark Dark Dark from the Bright Bright Bright EP (2010)