Arbouretum

If nothing else, Arbouretum’s songwriting has a lot of highfalutin thought behind it. Says frontman Dave Heumann: “Our approach is one of collective deconstruction, whereby we take apart the melodic and the rhythmic ideas of song, turn them sideways, backwards, or invert them in order to explore and develop the song’s possibilities.” That kind of cerebral approach can make for a lot of arty bullshit, but 2009’s Song Of The Pearl remains surprisingly grounded: It lives on the edges of folk, Americana, and post-rock, incorporating sounds from each into one cohesive, low-key package. A new album, The Gathering, finds the band adding such inspirations as fuzzed-out desert-rock and musings from Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung to its calculated mix.

Updated 03/02/2011