EIC's 10Q's w/ Mi & L'au

"..like pleasant Minimal Wave from the 80's meets Dream-Folk Pop as seen through frosted melancholic divinity.." 

Mi & L'au

Forlorn Affinity

Mi & L'au Bio:

Mira and Laurent - a model from Finland and soundtrack musicians from France austere minimal music made with voice and acoustic guitars and other very sparse orchestration Mi and L'au met in Paris a few years back Mi is Finnish and was working as a model for make ends meet and L'au (like French) worked in the music industry (soundtracks) They fell deeply and immediately in love and after a short time going from apartment to apartment in Paris, they gave everything up and decided to move in a little cabin in the woods in Finland so that they could be alone together in peace and spend their time discovering each other and their music They released their debut album Seftigen in October 2005 on Young God Records

 

Hello, how are you?

Hi there ! We're very well, thank you for asking…

 What are you currently listening to?
 Right now, we are listening to Richard Devine, The Kills, Peter Doherty, Nine Inch Nails, Christian Fennesz, Grinderman, Thelonious Monk, Chopin, Sufjan Stevens, The Books, Tim Hecker, Joy Division, David Lynch, Boards Of Canada, Serge Gainsbourg, Mirel Wagner, and many others…

The new album seems to be a little more electronic than the previous releases, what sparked this change?
It's not just " a little bit more electronic ". There was no electronic music in our previous works, whereas "If Beauty Is A Crime" was all made ONLY with a computer. We wanted to know what we could do with a computer, stuck in a box, eyes glued to the screen, flirting with this way of living we now call Transparency.

What do you mean by "If Beauty Is A Crime"?
It's a probe, it's a pole, and it's a drill..

Will you be touring for said release?
We are going to France at the end of February and will tour this spring, mostly in Europe.

Got any upcoming/new collabs we should know about?
No

I've been thinking about this lately, any reason you're no longer with M. Gira's label?
You shouldn't think too much about that , it will only lead you to gossip-land, and you certainly don't want that, do you?

 What movie would work best on mute with your music as it's soundtrack?
We played MAGIC 80 the other night - by mistake - on the top of "Night Fishing", a Park Chan Wook movie and it worked pretty well (the scene where the fisherman meet the siren).. But you know, we'd rather collaborate hand in hand with a film maker and compose music specifically for his/her movie. It doesn´t really make sense to us to add music on images, just like that ! It lacks of a certain creative process…

You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
This reminds us of A Clockwork Orange when they force this poor guy to listen to Beethoven Number 9 while watching images of Hitler's parade ( laughs ) You see, we are lucky, we have a little machine in our head, it is called MEMORY. We have kept thousand of albums in here, just in case…

Are you living your dream?
..........................................................................no, we're living our lives

 Thanx Olivier/M & L!

Mi & L'au are currently touring here and there in Europe, hopefully soon (again/one day) the US...

REVIEW: Mi & L'au - If Beauty Is A Crime

8.5 out of 10

Find it here.

A few years back, OK a lot maybe, I went to a small/hole-in-the-wall bar to go see Mi & L'au play, they sounded gorgeous and delicate just like their album/I was hoping. Unfortunately:( it was a bar filled with people that didn't even know who the band was and could care less. I've always held a little discontent towards the bar crowd ever since.. Ever seen the movie Ghost World? It's (the show I went to) like that scene where they go to the bar to listen to some obscure Blues musician and are distracted the entire time by loud bar douche bags (hopefully you're not one of these a$$#0les)! So annoying.. ::ahem:: Anywaaays, Mi & L'au used to be on on Young God Records, at the time/currently I sought after every release on that label and when Mi & L'au's debut came out I could pick a favorite (well, other than a few Swans releases of course;). Their sound fit well with the YG family, a little "bizarre (not really though) meets contemporary fire side folk lore". The story goes like this, they meet, they fall in love, they decide to leave civilization and hide out in a deserted cabin in the middle of the woods, and then they begin writing music. It really is a masterpiece as far as Folk music goes, listen to "A Word In Your Belly" and tell me you're not swooned.

Flash forward a couple albums later (the one in between being awesome too) and the duo are back with something a bit "different". 'If Beauty Is A Crime' takes Mi & L'au's acoustic nature and flips it inside out onto a digital screen. That's right, this time around they've decided to write an album with only the help of a computer, which may sound common these days, but to know M & L you could understand how this may seem a bit "out of place" or perhaps blasphemous.. It's not though, this album is GORGEOUS. Like a pleasant Minimal Wave album from the 80's meets Dream-Folk Pop as seen through frosted melancholic divinity. Mi & L'au have accomplished what most artists can't, they have dived(dove?) head first into a polar opposite sound and emerged victoriously, redefining what "modern" Folk music should really represent. If music can be reformed or take different shapes via current surroundings I would love to hear what this album sounds like in the original cabin M & L once locked themselves up in..

(lame pun alert) If Beauty is indeed a "crime" this album would most likely be put on death row. A lethal injection of this multitude would/should hook anyone in the right mind set. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Standout Tracks: All, Esp. Tender Words, Magic, Faces, Valdren, One Day, Warrior (perfect ender)

New Mi & L'au on the way..!

Taken from the upcoming (3rd full length) (with the same title as the single) "If Beauty Was A Crime", which is available January 23rd, via Alter K.

A bit different from their humble Folk beginnings (produced by M. Gira):

^this version is cut early, but I couldn't rest easy knowing you hadn't heard this song yet..

Can't wait for this release actually.