Solar Bears / She Was Coloured In

Planet Mu

Hailing from Ireland--Wicklow and Dublin to be precise--Solar Bears are John Kowalski and Rian Trench, the sole producers and musicians on the group's debut full-length, She Was Coloured In. They met at Pulse Sound Engineering School, started recording and were swiftly picked up by Planet Mu. This album follows in the wake of expectation stirred up by their recent Inner Sunshine EP and a series of remixes. Solar Bears' music is the soundtrack to a good life. Their songwriting and production has a languid, pastoral grace that intertwines rock and electronics, twisting melodies through prog rock's structures and occasionally making sharp turns into more tense post-rock territory. She Was Coloured In mixes analog electronica with the quietly epic perspective and shimmering neon synths of late-'70s / early-'80s kosmische music and the synth pop it informed.  The album opens with the cosmic disco intro of "Forest of Fountains" before moving straight into the gorgeous watery Rhodes and vocoder of "Children of the Times." By "Head Supernova," the listener is floating in beatless ambience reminiscent of chilly '80s synthscapes. "Dolls" pits a children's choir against rolling guitars while "Neon Colony" mixes gliding bottleneck guitar and triumphant synths. She Was Coloured In finishes with the sleepy, sunkissed drone of "Perpetual Meadow" carrying the listener back down to Earth. Spend some time with the Solar Bears.

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