Wyland began Au in 2005 as a sort of bedroom-recording project in Portland, Ore., and it swelled in size as Wyland began to draw on the talents of the thriving local music scene. But though Au has toured as a quartet and appeared in Portland as a sixpiece with a choir, since May 2008 the onthe-road version of Au has simply been a duo,Wyland performing with Dana Vlatka, his drummer and primary co-conspirator.
“I’m a person who loves extremes,” Wyland explains by phone from Chesterfield, N.H., where he’s been living at his mother’s home for several months and recording a mostly live EP with Vlatka at a nearby studio (the owner of Aagoo Records, Au’s label, fashioned a studio in the garage of his parents’ home there). “There was a person once who asked me if I thought my music was bipolar. And at first I was like, ‘What do you mean by that?’ But I think there’s an amount of truth in there. I kind of enjoy playing with that thought of the scope of something to express myself—if there’s just me or 30 other people onstage.”
But between Wyland and Vlatka (also of the sprawling Portland experimental psychedelic troupe Jackie-O Motherfucker), they wield enough instruments for a full band and project a startling array of sounds for a two-piece.Vlatka’s on drums, glockenspiel and bells and sings, while Wyland has concocted an arrangement that allows him to maneuver among assorted implements.
“My setup is relatively spaceship style,” Wyland says. “It’s this feet and hands control station.” The hub of his self-styled command center is a keyboard and, behind that, a lap steel guitar with a sampler off to the side and a melodica above the whole apparatus, all of which runs through a mixer connected to numerous pedals. And no part of Au’s live performance is pre-recorded. Instead,Wyland deftly weaves his sonic tapestries through live looping, although he once struggled to manage this feat. “At first it was kind of overwhelming, and there were a few shows where if one thing went wrong, it was a horrible mess. But the more I do it, the more that I love it,” Wyland says. “I love it being me in charge of the melodic stuff and then having [Vlatka] pretty much be in charge of the rhythm. It’s very liberating and very scary at points.”
Though Wyland says he realizes that fans who have heard Verbs may expect a larger band live, he had to scale down the touring band because most of the players on the record aren’t able to travel, and he himself prefers smaller numbers because the dialogue onstage is stronger.
“There’s more responsibility on both of our shoulders, but there’s more interplay as well… The dynamic is definitely different, and we’re forced to put a lot more energy out there,”Wyland explains. “I come from a background of jazz and improv.
The ability to spontaneously change things and keeps me interested regardless of playing shows night after night after night.”
And besides,Wyland appreciates the fact that Vlatka, an exuberantly gifted performer, challenges him to stretch his limits every night.
“The guy is an animal, and I love that about him,”Wyland says. “He pushes me to try new things and not get into the slump of repetition.”
> Au
Jan. 24, (Le) Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. (betw. Sullivan and Thompson Sts.), 212-796- 0741; 8, $12.
Au last year at Spiegeltent.
Mr. Master
