MI AND LAU US TOUR

Mi & L'au

MI AND L'AU US TOUR

JAN 13 - MARCH 10 2006

MI AND L'AU US TOUR JAN 13 - MARCH 10 2006

Fri 1/13/06 Cake Shop New York,
NY Sat 1/14/06 Knitting Factory New York NY w/Akron Family
Sun 1/15/06 PA's Lounge Somerville MA
Mon 1/16/06 AS 220 Art Space Providence RI
Tue 1/17/06 World Cafe Live Upstairs Philadelphia PA
Wed 1/18/06 Talking Head Club Baltimore MD w/Akron Family
Thu 1/19/06 The Werehouse Winston-Salem NC w/Akron Family
Fri 1/20/06 Grey Eagle Tavern & Music Hall Asheville NC w/Akron Family
Sat 1/21/06 Pilot Light Knoxville TN w/Akron Family Sun 1/22/06 OFF Mon 1/23/06 Hi Tone Memphis TN w/Akron Family
Tue 1/24/06 Andy's Denton TX w/Akron Family
Wed 1/25/06 Emo's Austin TX w/Akron Family
Thu 1/26/06 Opolis Norman OK
Fri 1/27/06 The Pistol Gallery Kansas City MO
Sat 1/28/06 OFF
Sun 1/29/06 Iron Post Urbana IL
Mon 1/30/06 The Church Bloomington IN
Tue 1/31/06 Viper Room Cincinnati OH
Wed 2/1/06 Night Owl Dayton OH
Thurs 2/2/06 OFF
Fri 2/3/06 Division Ave Arts Cooperative Grand Rapids MI
Sat 2/4/06 Empty Bottle Chicago IL
Sun 2/5/06 Cafe Montmartre Madison WI
Mon 2/6/06 OFF Tue 2/7/06 Onopa Brewing Company Milwaukee WI
Wed 2/8/06 Turf Club St. Paul MN Thu 2/9/06 Triple Rock Social Club Minneapolis MN
Fri 2/10/06 O¹leavers Omaha, NE
Sat 2/11/06 Larimer Lounge Denver CO w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Sun 2/12/06 OFF Mon 2/13/06 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City UT w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Tue 2/14/06 Neurolux Boise, ID w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Wed 2/15/06 Towne Lounge Portland OR w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Thu 2/16/06 Sunset Tavern Seattle WA w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Fri 2/17/06 OFF Sat 2/18/06 Eagle's Hall Olympia WA w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Sun 2/19/06 OFF Mon 2/20/06 Delta of Venus Davis Ca w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Tue 2/21/06 Cafe Du Nord San Francisco CA w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Wed 2/22/06 The Attic Santa Cruz Santa Cruz Ca w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Thu 2/23/06 The Mainzer Theater Merced CA w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Fri 2/24/06 OFF Sat 2/25/06 Arthurball- Echo Main Los Angeles
Sun 2/26/06 Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown CA
Mon 2/27/06 OFF
Tue 2/28/06 Plush Tucson AZ w/Born Heller/josephine foster
Wed 3/1/06 DRIVE Drive
Thurs 3/2/06 Drive
Fri 3/3/06 Drive
Sat 3/4/06 Drive
Sun 3/5/06 Drive
Mon 3/6/06 High Five Columbus OH
Tues 3/7/06 0ff
Wed 3/8/06 Garfield Artworks Pittsburgh PA w/Sandcats
Thurs 3/9/06 Off Fri 3/10/06 Tonic New York NY

Mi and L'au met in Paris a few years back. Mi is Finnish and was working as a model to make ends meet and L'au (who's French) was working in the music industry (soundtracks, I think). They fell deeply and immediately in love, and after a short period of moving from apartment to apartment in Paris, they gave everything up and decided to move to the woods in Finland, so they could be alone together in peace and to spend their time discovering each other and their music. They live in a small cabin in complete isolation with the barest of essentials (except in the brutal Finnish winter, when they move to Helsinki) and they spend virtually all their time making music together in solitude. They are pure and gentle souls (Devendra's song, from oh me oh my "gentle soul" was written for L'au – the two had met in Paris when Devendra was wandering there, and L'au took him in, and they also made music together). Their music is bare and austere, made with simple instrumentation - voice, acoustic guitars, and other very sparse orchestrations. I wouldn't say it compares at all to the current crop of neo hippy "weird folk" etc. It has the naked quality of certain early Nico recordings, or Chet Baker...soulful and elegant, without being touchy-feely or confessional. Their music reminds me of how one might imagine a winter Finnish landscape - haunting and pure.

Mi and L'au Review

songs sung by a Finnish waif in the key of air From "C & D" CD Review ColumnDecember 05

C: Like old weird Tom Waits fairground songs sung by a Finnish waif in the key of air. And accompanied by a humble-voiced post-Nic Drake haunted gentleman from France. These are closely recorded, delicate songs‹that is there's tape hiss and falling rain and throat clearing‹written to each other, based on a lived natural intimacy. D: Reminds me of Mojave 3, when Rachel sang.C: Mi and L'au apparently lead quite the reclusive, romantic life together in the Finnish woods. Life beyond electricity. This seems to be happening a lot lately: younger musicians and artists retreating, or withdrawing, to rural settings, refusing to engage modern civilization except when necessary. Little Wings, Brightblack Morning Light definitely. But nature is also providing the setting for more promotional films and photographs: see Cat Power's live DVD, and Sleater-Kinney's The Woods, and Growing's work, and Six Organs of Admittance and Devendra and Feathers album covers, and stuff from the New Energy movement people, and these photos of Pearls and Brass. D: I think she's whispering along with her singing. A secret recording technique that I think Jim Morrison did sometimes. Or I like to imagine he did. More time riding horses and picking buttercups. Less inner rage.


12/2/2005 Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Ed Masley Mi and L'au Review

The female vocals here are gorgeous, just breathy enough to lend this duo's understated chamber-folk an ethereal edge while retaining an earthy emotional kick. But that's all out the window when her boyfriend sings. Or most times anyway. He sounds OK on "A World in Your Belly," a song that effortlessly conjures images of Sigur Ros, but too often his vocals interrupt the carefully constructed mood of the prettier tracks here, from the haunting lead-off cut "They Marry" to the string-fueled meditation "Older." Michael Gira produced and keeps things relatively spare and intimate on most tracks, an approach that only makes it that much more effective when the strings and other instrumental flourishes come in on "A Word in Your Belly" or "Andy."


11/17/2005 splendidmagazine.com Jennifer Kelly Mi and L'au Review

These songs are like haiku November 17/05These songs are like haiku: minimal and perfectly framed by silence. They were made by a couple in love -- a Finnish model and a French musician. Mi and L'au met in Paris, where they befriended an impoverished Devendra Banhart (he dedicated Oh Me Oh My's "Gentle Soul" to them), then moved to an isolated cabin in Finland, where they wrote and recorded these fragile songs. As you listen, you'll imagine snow-laden eaves and stone fireplaces, fur-lined parkas and knitted gloves, and bright-orange sunsets viewed over the rims of mugs of tea. There's a deep quiet here that has long been associated with snow -- you can hear it in every pause and breath. You canalso hear the sound of two people in tune with each other, their voices brushing each other like hands in "Nude", their tranquil guitars and percussive accents leaving space in the sound for each other.Mi, the girl, is the most striking singer: her pure soprano is like an ice-skimmed pond, all crystal surface and mysterious depths. Her "Boxer" arises out of only breath, languid guitars filling in the crevices in her whisper-sung verses. It sounds as if she's singing for herself, or for a child not quite born; the pauses are almost as meaningful as the words and notes. A crescendo of instruments -- guitar, bass and low-noted piano -- gathers as she sings the song's high, dramatic ending. It somehow builds in intensity without ever accumulating much volume.Lau sings less frequently, and with more orchestral decoration, as on the synth and string-swept "A Word in Your Belly", but he is wholly natural, right there on this recording as if he'd materialized in your ear. The pair of them are entwined on "Bums", a glancing melody wrapped in a metaphor about love and dreams and indigence. It ends incongruously in the hiss of machinery. Found sounds appear in closer "Study", as well, as bubbling water plays tag with blues slides in the song's background.These songs seem slight and fleeting at first -- wisps rather than fully formed compositions. Over time, however, they gain a dreamy certainty that's built into the silences between notes as much as the melodies themselves.