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http://thusowls.com/

Thus:Owls (with Simon Angell and Robbie Kuster of Patrick Watson band) perform a track off their 2011 album "Harbours". Opening for Plants and Animals.

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With their odd and brave debut record, Thus:Owls carved themselves into the psyches and hearts of many curious crowds along their way. They seamlessly straddle the worlds of close fragility and far-reaching intensity in their homemade cinematic music, decorated with experimental ornaments. The following up album Harbours, recorded on the french country side, will be available in Sweden October 5th.

When the winter darkness hovered over Sweden, just around Christmas time 2010, the band packed up their belongings and headed south towards France. In a little village on the banks of La Seine, just east of Paris, you'll find a castle that houses studio La Frette, hidden, like a well kept secret behind high stone walls. In these rooms from the century past, with big windows and tall ceilings, they settled in to work on their second album.

The recordings went on both day and night. The grand entrance as well as the kitchen was used to find new soundscapes. The music got minted by the castles voice, the solitude, and the lightly surreal atmosphere that grew stronger during the work. This is where Harbours was born, like a cut in time, in exile from reality.

Thus:Owls is the brainchild of Swedish singer/composer Erika Angell. Erika hails from a small island on the rugged west coast of Sweden. As many talented young artists do when they feel the constraints of small town living, she headed for the city. In this case, eastward to Stockholm. But she didn't leave anything behind, as you can still hear the power of the ocean and the depth of the woods in her voice.

After a couple of years of fronting and accompanying many other groups in Stockholm, Erika put Thus:Owls together along with her husband Simon Angell, Martin Höper, Ola Hultgren and Cecilia Persson. This group of five make a fine blend of tempers which results in a perfect balance between tension and release. Their sound is one that is not easily pinned down as there is a certain dichotomy to what they do. Both strangely familiar and oddly soothing whilst keeping you on the edge of your seat.

Part of it may lay in the fact that the make-up of the group crosses international waters, with members from both Sweden and Canada. Two countries that have been on the forefront of aural creativity during the last few of years. Thus:Owls are inspired by many styles but always manage to keep true to their own voice.

Although the band was formed only three years ago, they have been busy on the international scene touring throughout Europe and parts of North America in support of their critically-acclaimed debut record Cardiac Malformations (Hoob Records 2009).

Harbours contains nine compositions, performed with the same unique tone and distinctively original sound that Thus:Owls presented already with Cardiac Malformations. It's pop with experimental elements in arrangements and structure as well as in performance. The compositions develop in surprising directions and are tastefully framed by choirs, strings, percussions and horns. Each song dressed in the attire of its demands.

Harbours is a travel where the listener is taken through changing landscapes, every tune it's own cinematic experience. The poetically storytelling lyrics are warmly emotional, with streaks of melancholy, that through Erika Angell's marvelous and touching voice is reaching deep inside. Thus:Owls new album is open and infinite like the sea, an album to carry along over time.