Laurel Halo

Enchanting and at times swooning kaleidoscope-pop, letting loose acoustic based improvisations that facilitate a capricious experimentalism – glowing vibrantly with synth waves and subtle lab top beats and toy casio percolations under heavenly wandered-into-a-dream vocals, airy but not lucid, more like the steady push (and unpredictable whim) of the wind; songs meander and find their way, growing into an ever-morphing musical landscape with intricate accompaniments. An acoustic strum sets the foundation while the warbled synth surges up and left and down and around and the bumblebee errantry of the melody and the electronics whirl the listener further on, with the ground (be it guitar, drum, ukulele, stylophone, Irish harp or violin) never fading away...

This Ann Arbor-based project is lead by multi-instrumentalist Laurel Chartow (synth, guitar, vocals, writing) and aided by Andrew Kratzat, Dan Sutherland and Matthew Endhal, comparable luminaries on the experimental/jazz scene. “It’s All For The Elephants” is Chartow’s debut EP, the songs have an almost woozy, drifting mysticism and feel much like dreams themselves – like they could sound differently each time…and, often do when performed, as the projects live performance wholeheartedly embrace the freedom of improvisation, while also indulging a penchant for danceability and a reverence for classical style.

Halolos play on Election Night, November 4th, in Ann Arbor at loft/artspace Arborvitae (info) with fractured bizarro-pop and soulful electronica of Skeleton$ and local ambient/atmospheric trio Airport – as part of the Democracy Rules Bonanza! --JEFF MILO - deepcutzmusic.blogspot.com

Rare is the singer/songwriter who writes songs that are not only strange and transcendent but also melodious, accessible, beautiful. I absolutely love her music.

--Charlene Kaye


- Charlene Kaye

"...Halolos is an experimental freak-folk space-opera with a sound altogether weird, but alluring, strange but heartfelt – kaleidoscope pop, as I’ve often called it. It embraces the jazz philosophy of freeform expression with the quartet setting acoustic and rhythmic foundations for a song and then slowly and steadily pushes it outwards to dreamy expanses.

The band was started in 2007 by 23-year-old U-M grad (and classically trained multi-instrumentalist) Laurel Chartow. She has played the piano from a young age, drawing from Ravel, Debussy and Rachmanioff, but lately, having since picked up the violin, ukulele and synthesizer (as well as developed her beautiful singing voice) she’s formed a sweet and fierce narrative of morphing pop tunes informed by Ricardo Villalobos, White Magic, Giorgio Moroder, Deerhoof and Stereolab. “I live in a loft with three other musicians, all of whom are fond of particular genres,� said Chartow, “I’ll come home in the evening and hear ragtime, surf, and Brazilian funk blasting from three separate rooms. There is little sonic privacy so i feel our influences creep in on each other inadvertently.

Halolos (with Matthew Endahl, Andrew Kratzat, Dan Sutherland) recently released “It’s All For The Elephants EP� and plans to release a full length in the winter of 09. “...songs are compositionally somewhere between pop tunes and classical art songs. In one show you can hear pop, swing, funk, carousel, disco, cabaret, Latin, free improvisation, and more.� More info: myspace.com/halolos..." - Ann Arbor Current Magazine