Four years after Bon Iver emerged from Wisconsin cabin with one of the 2000s’ most celebrated records, the forlorn folkie has announced his second album. Featuring pedal-steel, saxophone and a children’s choir. For new album, Vernon brought in sidemen such as pedal-steel guitarist Greg Leisz, and sax virtuoso Colin Stetson, who has backed Arcade Fire, Beirut and Tom Waits. Bon Iver’s new album will have 10 tracks, each inspired by a different place. Perth, named after the Australian city, is a “Civil War-sounding heavy metal song” with martial drums, choir and “wailing guitars”. Minnesota Wisconsin lays Stetson’s bass saxophone over Vernon’s finger-picked guitar, and the album closer, Beth/Rest, is “definitely the part where you pick up your joint and relight it”.

Dark Captain make shimmering experimental folk, and give it the kind of epic scope we last witnessed in the days of post rock. That’s no bad thing either; with the grandiose wail of Godspeed and the heart and soul of Fairport Convention the band are on to something really special, and coming from the LOAF camp you know you’re in for a delicious treat. Somehow there’s a very defiant British streak to ‘Dead Legs & Alibis’, and deep beneath the gorgeous production and noisier elements there’s a record that even my dad could hold near and dear. I can’t for the life of me work out why more people aren’t listening to Dark Captain instead of plumping for arch-twats Mumford and Sons, but then the world isn’t very fair, is it now? Well good.

After a masterly first album, « I was a rabbit ( and i won) », released in 2004 by Another Record, Dana Hilliot is back with a new collection of tracks that are still personal, singular and moving, composed and recorded on the spur of the moment, panic-stricken by recent anecdotes. With arrangements on piano and voice by Delpine Dora on most of the tracks, one also finds what had made the mans reputation: minimalist songs on acoustic guitar in which one also enconters pastoral flute, the symbol of his taste for wildlife.
The weight of memories, the despair of clumsiness and hints of hope are here transcended by fresh arrangements and honest, haunted interpretation, devoid of ceremonial, the blood of existence. In this new album entitled Misfit, Dana Hilliot (always with his friends) unveils even more, leaves all sense of decency behind and unblushingly gives away unreciprocal love stories (Song for L in two versions, opening and closing the album, with a participation of Valérie Leclercq aka Half Asleep), unsettling encounters (Five years after), hardly blameless acknowledgements (Looking for a prostitute, My first boyfriend), guilty teenage daydreaming with a proletarian background (Lovers in the wood) and so many other things....
Misfit is released under Creative Commons License.

How should we define the Dana hilliot's personality with a few words? That's an amazing game, but it seems that a biography would be more suitable for such a character, or maybe an epitaph, to make it truly short. Well, let's say in bulk and without any hierarchy: Dana Hilliot... Low-fi storyteller, slow-core crooner, indie-folk ambassador, soft-porno songwriter, serial-lover, serial-loser, ex-punk who became a neo-hippie, joyful depressive person, prince of his own darkness, and pretty rough guitarist... The songs of Mr Hilliot wear a serious background on their shoulders, and they won't try to deny it. Yet, this background never changes into a burden: everything is said with a few lines, just the essentials, three minimalistic chords and a steady voice without settings, nor pathos. In his music, grief can be blunt or bucolic, anyway it remains expiating most of the time. Every exhumed memory calls for redemption, so Dana sings his ghosts _ particularly women_, ghosts of fifteen years sometimes, that he lets revive without tearing, nor bitterness. And of course, there is grace too, liveliness, desire, in a corner of nature, earthly or feminine nature... A celebration of timeless feelings, a semblance of inner peace, even if troubles are never really far with that tender schizophrenic guy. That's probably why he decided to invite other musicians on his first album, to feel a little less alone in front of his many internal demons... Therefore, the recordings took place with an occasional band (after a series of solo demos), in April 2004. The crasy idea was to gather six people in two rooms, without a window, for three days. Dana called his friends (Delphine Dori, Jullian Angel, Lunt, The wedding soundtrack, Half asleep) and explained his idea to them. The friends liked the idea, heaven knows why... But the idea was especially to extract a dozen of tracks from master Dana, and transform them to various degrees. Here is the result : 50 minutes of spontaneous folk, dark, troubled, softly delirious sometimes. Now and then, voices start multiplying and the instrumentation grows in size. Actually, the friends did a great job, gathered this way in two rooms, without a window, for three days... Three days, without watching the sun (or hardly), three days attempting to achieve the idea as well as possible. It seems that work does always pay, since the idea has been given a name now, " I was a rabbit and I won ", wholly graved on a round material...

是夏天，一阵清风吹来，和煦的阳光，带着一份清新的味道。这可能是听众对这张经过18个月期待的第二张专辑Riot On An Empty Street的第一个印象，但对于Kings Of Convenience来说，却是有着对”人”内心世界的观点与想像。“真得很难解释人们心里到底在想什么。”他这么注解着专辑的内容，从专辑开场的 Homesick、首支单曲Misread亦或是Gold In The Air Of Summer，随着上张专辑的脚步，他们化身为说故事的人，用大家熟识的和谐音调，娓娓的诉说着他们对”人心”的描写。而有着80年代Go Between风味的单曲I’d Rather Dance With You，在歌词里写着”我有一整年没有看过一本书，唯一看过的一部电影，我一点也不喜欢…。”“你的生活可以像本书或是部电影，我非常渴望去找寻日常生活里，如电影情节般的状况。”另外，“Boe的历任女朋友一直是我们乐团很重要的一个部份，”Oye还这么地解释，“他有一个曾经交往了两年的女朋友，在那段时间里他写了很多的作品，让我们有不少压箱的作品。”而事实在也的确如此，因为Boe的新女友就出现在专辑的封面上