ArourA

AroarA is the new duo from Montreal’s Andrew Whiteman (Broken Social Scene founding member, Apostle of Hustle) and Ariel Engle. They play amplified cigar box guitars and use a 404 sampler to trigger mellotrons and Black Sabbath bells. It is a new type of minimalism, which allows the emotions to come through unimpeded by bombast or blarney. Vocal duets, twin guitar lines and thundercloud drum machines are their stock and trade. AroarA’s first foray is based on the work of avant-garde American poet, Alice Notley. Her acclaimed book of poetry, "In The Pines", was first published in 2007 and relates the spiritual and visionary experiences of a woman undergoing a cure Hepatitis C. Her visions are Depression-era tableaux; Notley’s book is laced with quotations from gospel, folk and blues music of that period. The song fragments along with powerful imagery throughout the poems inspired AroarA to transform the work into music. With Alice Notley's permission, AroarA recorded fourteen songs corresponding to the fourteen poems in the book. They used the words from each poem to make faux-folk song forms and then added beats, melodies, and vintage sounds to create their debut record e... more...