Bouquet
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Bouquet

Los Angeles, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2012 | SELF

Los Angeles, California, United States | SELF
Established on Jan, 2012
Duo Alternative Pop

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Music

Press


"MUSIC"

LA's dreamiest dream pop duo, Bouquet is Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Max Foreman -- a pair of post-punk nostalgists whose songs sound (almost suspiciously) like private press gems from Rough Trade's golden era. Bouquet's boxed-drum melodies harken back to bands like Young Marble Giants, Felt, and Marine Girls - punk bands out of time with their own time, who endure because they were just so strange and singular. Tonight they echo out the Echo for Dream Boys' free Monday night residency, alongside LA Takedown and Day Dreams. Dreamy. - YACHT 5-Everyday


"Wonders in the Hidden Cave of Seattle's Hollow Earth Radio"

A tiny, narrow, urban grotto in Seattle’s Central District, serves as the home for Hollow Earth Radio, a young internet radio station committed to giving voices to underrepresented musical formats and artists, including but not limited to found sound, field recordings, and local bands. In addition to performing this important service, the space also hosts shows, which are recorded and then broadcast via the radio station, which you can stream online.

Lake_at_Hollow_Earth-4While in Seattle last month, I had the privilege of catching one of these intimate recording sessions with two excellent bands, Pacific Northwest-based band Lake and L.A.-based band Bouquet. Both bands were on their way to Anacortes, where they would play the Anacortes Unknown Music Series in a few days. Hollow Earth’s digs may be small, but the atmosphere in this tucked away, metropolitan cavern is warm and magical.
...
Bouquet, a two-piece consisting of Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs on vocals and guitar and Max Foreman on keys, followed Lake to close out the evening. The duo is assisted by a fleet of drum machines, which provide a variety of nuanced percussive dynamics. The group’s dark minimalist pop is simultaneously beautiful and stark, full of flowing, undulating synths and clanging, metallic guitar tones. We’ve praised their work more than a few times, and they keep giving us cause to reiterate our affection; the band appears to reach new depths of self-awareness with each new song. - Pop Press International


"Bouquet “Falling”"

What precisely makes a sad song sad? Harmony? Melody? Is the aural texture most important? Or can a potent libretto overpower compelling sounds? What if the separate components of a song are at odds? Do contrasting humors merely cancel each other out, like a balanced emotional pH, or do they concoct something new?

The good songs, of course, make something new. Musical alchemy. While it’s tricky to tease out a song’s commanding element, the video for “Falling” — by L.A. band Bouquet, premiered here in association with MOCAtv — demonstrates how a hymn with emotional tension can surpass a track plainly “happy” or “sad.” Behold, firstly, the purity of Bouquet’s vocals by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs (formerly of San Francisco folk group, The Finches), their optimism, open clarity. When the tempo picks up, the singer leans into her words, as if she can’t wait to dive deeper in. It’s a subtle effect, but strong, as her delivery quite literally “falls” forward. But what can be good about falling? Falling in love, sure. Or exhilaration, a roller coaster drop. And let us not forget the warmth sometimes found in a plunging, molasses dive, as the legions of shoegaze have often showcased.

And yet the falling that Bouquet describes is different. “Something… there’s something wrong” is the lyric that kicks off the tempo change. It “colors everything,” she says. An insightful listener should discern the apparent disconnect between the tone of the track’s lyrics and its content. We find a woman eager to sound coherent and frank, but her message is one about faltering. Over time, her excitement becomes less convincing, until it’s almost desperate; eventually, it seems to be nothing more than anxious self-assurance, a mask of denial, even as she knows something has gone terribly off course. While Bouquet sounds emotionally bright, crisp, their message leads instead to something dark, something somehow much more honest.

It is a testament to the complexity of human emotion that we demand complex songs. Thankfully, every once in a while, we get a band who can deliver. Sometimes falling really does feel exactly like this. - Tiny Mix Tapes


"Video: Bouquet, "Falling""

Bouquet, from California, turns in some perfect pop. "Falling," a sweet and easy tune, has hints of the best notes of Belle and Sebastian, forceful in its gentleness and dreamy in measured moments. The new group is performing this weekend at ATP in the UK, catch them there. - The Fader


"SOUS SURVEILLANCE - Bouquet"

QUI?
Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs (chant, guitare)
Max Foreman (claviers, chant)
OU?
Los Angeles (Estats-Unis)
Tradition et modernite. L'alliance de ces deux mots pourrait a elle seule resumer les compositions de Bouquet. Lorsque les deux Californiens se rencontrent en juin 2013, ils ont deha chacun de leur cote pres d'une dizaine d'annees de metier. Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs a pendant plus de huit ans mene divers projets dont The Finches (avec Aaron Morgan), bercant de jolies comptines folk de sa voix ravissante. Pendant ce temps, Max Foreman versait dans des penchants arty avec des compositions post-rock complexes au sein de Tenebre et experimentait la musique electronique en solo. Bouquet reussit le mariage des accointances naturelles de ses compositeurs. Le duo mixte revendique un double heritage et des references sures: Simon & Garfunkel, Sibylle Baier, Fairport Convention, Leonard Cohen, Palace Music, Francoise Hardy, Joni Mitchell, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Laurie Spiegel et Suicide.
DERNIERE SORTIE
Pour l'heure, seuls deux EP sous le pseudonyme de Bouquet sont parus. Still The River/Don't Look Now et Cave Life ont ete enregistres dans une formation anterieure a la rencontre de Carolyn et Max, mais ils temoignent deja des qualites de composition de la demoiselle. Dans sa forme actuelle (et pour resumer), Bouquet accorde plus de place aux claviers et prefere les boites a rythmes. La reduction du line-up a sa plus simple expression n'enleve rien a la richesse melodique des chansons. Les sonorites ont meme gagne en profundeur. Pour s'en convaincre, ilsuffit de se rendre sur le site du duo et d'ecouter les cinq sublimes titre recemment mis en ligne.
TUBE ABSOLU
Come To Your House. Coup de foudre immediat, comme pour tous les titres de Bouquet d'ailleurs. Des les premieres secondes, on est ravi par l'elegance rare de la melodie et on songe au Broadcast des debuts. On conseillera aussi les vulnerables et moins evidents Falling et Over Mountains. Quelle voix!
FUTUR CONDITIONNEL
Cinq titres d'une telle classe, sans maladresse ni moment de disgrace, ca attise l'impatience. Heureusement, l'attente (forement trop longue) ne sera pas vaine. Un EP verra le jour cet automne sur les labels Ulrike et Folktale Records tandis que l'ete sera consacre a la realisation de videos et a l'ecriture d'un premier album. Gageons d'ores et deja que ce dernier sera une merveille.
SITE
bouquetmusic.com

-Xavier Mazure - Magic RPM


Discography

OVER MOUNTAINS 2015 Folktale Records

PART TIME PUNKS RADIO SESSION 2014

STILL THE RIVER 2013 Ulrike Records

PATHWAYS TO THE INVINCIBLE SUN (compilation) 2012 Big Love Records, Japan

CAVE LIFE 2012 Self-release

Photos

Bio

Bouquet is a kaleidoscopic pop duo from Los Angeles, CA featuring Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Max Foreman. The two set out to create a uniquely immersive sound, blending intricate vocal harmonies with a rising mass of guitar, trembling synthesizer, and pulsations of early rhythm machines. Lyrics alternate between painterly portraits out of time and devastatingly simple pop tenacity to delightful effect. Bouquet's music echoes undefinable post-punk wonders Young Marble Giants and This Mortal Coil, synth heroes such as Cluster and Suicide, and the dulcet sensibilities of Sibylle Baier and Sandy Denny.   

Since 2013, Bouquet has gained increasing notoriety for their live performances, which incorporate video art created by the band. Some of these performances include supporting acts such as Geneva Jacuzzi, Ariel Pink, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, EMA, Sonny and the Sunsets, Lori Goldston, Nite Jewel, and an appearance at TV On The Radio-curated All Tomorrow's Parties Festival in the UK. Other appearances have included The Hammer Museum Biennial in Los Angeles, Times Square Arts' Rooftop Music Series in New York, and Night Court at Art Basel Miami. Bouquet's In A Dream EP (2014) is mixed by producer Cole Marsden Greif-Neill (Beck, Julia Holter, Ariel Pink). More recently their Part Time Punks session has been featured on the soundtrack to Hope Larson's webcomic SOLO.

Both members grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and met in Los Angeles in 2012. Carolyn fronted San Francisco folk-pop duo The Finches, and Max cofounded the instrumental rock group Tenebre, later moving to solo live electronics. Their intersection of classic folk songwriting and electronic sound palette render a unique musical approach -- a focus on lyrics and feeling, unconventional instrumentation, with an ear towards classic pop structure. Bouquet has forged a sound both sublime and incisive, aimed directly at the heart.

Band Members