Lost in the Trees at Third Space

When Lost In The Trees set out to record Past Life, their third album for ANTI-, they knew they needed a break with the past. Frontman Ari Picker looked to move beyond the themes of loss that fueled two emotional, densely personal collections of songs. Channeling the liberating happiness he felt in his young marriage into his method, he came up with a new approach to writing: "I wanted to reach out and grab the music rather than have it come from some internal place."

 

On past releases Picker had used an expanded six-member band to render his carefully composed, classical-inflected songs, bringing them fully arranged to the studio for the band to perform. For the new album, the band was pared to a lean electronic-rock four-piece, and in this new configuration Lost In The Trees took to the road to workshop the songs that would become Past Life.

 

Immediately, the new tracks evidence more than a band pared down; the arrangements are modern, spare, minimal, emphasizing groove and rhythm, blending the sonic architecture of 21st-century electronic dance music, the austere emotion of the minimalist composers, and the sensual swerve of post-Bowie 80s pop.

 

All ages.