Comments (1) ... Drawing from the surrealistically absent seasons of Los Angeles and its dually hostile and inviting city streets, the quartet of From Leaf To Feather offer their debut album "Themes On An Imaginary Winter". After a brief abstract soul introduction with "The Eve" we are treated to their critically lauded song "NightSun", which first appeared on the Milan Records' compilation "Artdontsleep Presents: From L.A. With Love". You don't need a very active imagination to envision crazed images of a simulated winter in a city where it never snows and the true function of scarves are a thing of distant folklore.

1. The Eve
2. NightSun
3. Forgiveness
4. Let Her Go
5. The One Red Square
6. Helium Whispers
7. The Hamster and the Heir
8. Wrinkles in Time
9. Crickets Lament
10. Sunshine Rock & Roll
11. Albeit
12. Master Cylinder vs. Sunset G.

You really get a sense for the wonderful possibilities contained within From Leaf To Feather when you listen to "Forgiveness". This is a slowly developing song that opens with lightly played electric piano keys, soft brushes of snare, and delicate accordion. This plays on for nearly two minutes until Morse Code taps of squelchy synths played on a layer of vinyl static announce a change, and it's at this point that a muffled bass kick builds on the nearly absent percussion and a lazy bass line joins in. When Lauri Kranz's softly breathed vocals drift out along the music and the almost tidal tranquility of the vinyl static, the mood it all creates is simply painful for all its beauty. You could lose yourself in this song for hours.

From the solo, acoustic guitar simplicity of the instrumental "Let Her Go", to the more disturbing 50's sci-fi synth sound of the equally instrumental "The One Red Square", keeping their sound hard to anticipate is clearly one of From Leaf To Feather's closely held tenants.

"Helium Whisper" rolls along with the kind of pace you might slowly skip along in a grassy park to. Soft percussion forms the structure upon which electric piano keys, subtle, analog synth washes, bass guitar, and some kind of xylophone twinkles play out a dreamlike stroll.

It is really almost impossible to anticipate what's coming next in each of their songs, and from song to song. What you can expect from this quartet are minimally played acoustic and analog instruments, percussion that's centered on brushed snares and hi-hats, and vocals that get barely louder than a spoken word. With most of the songs being instrumental, their sound is folky, artsy, and very free form, while at the same time it's being synthesized and bound to the traditions of jazz and a dreamy, abstract notion of 60's folk pop.

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