Lost in the Trees
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Lost in the Trees

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"Southeast Performer Feature"

November, 2008 - Singer/songwriter/composer Ari Picker’s solo venture Lost in the Trees released its second EP, Time Taunts Me, to rave reviews in 2007. Now Picker is back with Lost in the Trees’ first full-length album, All Alone in an Empty House (Trekky Records), a record that takes the musical inventiveness displayed on Time and adds the depth of hauntingly personal lyrics and stripped-down, acoustic songs – all with a generous helping of crisp musicianship.

“These are the first songs I’ve written that tug at my own heartstrings,” says Picker. He adds, laughing, “I started vomiting up unpoetic, meaningful lyrics, and now I don’t know if I can stop.”

Picker weaves these “unpoetic” folk songs through complex, textured arrangements and classical music sketches, which give Empty House a layered feel. This is enriched by the presence of some of North Carolina’s best young classical musicians, who, with the coordination provided by Trekky Records’ Emma Nadeau, came together to express Picker’s vision.

“I thought of [All Alone in an Empty House] as a concept album of a man sitting on his back porch, strumming his guitar, while other instrumental sounds sort of drift in out of the night,” he says. “It’s really a three-piece movement – opening simply, building tension, and then ending with sweeping finish.”

This vision, though brought forth by Picker, is clearly influenced by the musicians around him. “My task is to understand all the fundamentals of each instrument I’m writing for,” says Picker. “My technique and vocabulary increases with each interaction I have with the musicians I work with. It is a constant learning process, and I take all suggestions from my players to heart.”

The musical technique displayed on All Alone in an Empty House speaks to this interaction, as the album feels like a cohesive movement. As for the origins of the songs, Picker says, “I write on my own. Then as an ensemble, we rehearse the material like any orchestra or band would. It is always gratifying hearing the music come off the page.”

Picker’s craft developed as a film-scoring student at Boston’s Berklee College of Music and was honed scoring films like the award-winning animated short, Windows, Masks, Doors. Much of Lost in the Trees’ cinematic quality can be attributed to this background. Picker is interested in using visually evocative music to parallel the themes presented in his lyrics.

“I want to take programmatic music and pair it with personal lyrics,” he says, “not just use programmatic words for their own sake.”

In addition to his Berklee classical training, Picker developed his pop sensibilities playing with North Carolina rock groups The B-Sides and The Never. It was in these groups that Picker learned the advantages and drawbacks of writing in a band setting, which led him to the solo effort of Lost in the Trees.

“Writing with four or five other people can be really exciting and fulfilling,” Picker says, “but I found that I can get a lot more done sitting at the piano and writing by myself and then sharing that with other musicians.”

A 10-piece version of Lost in the Trees will soon be on the road playing a string of East Coast dates, but the versatility of the band’s sound allows for the music to be played with sparser accompaniment, which is a positive attribute for any band in the current economic climate of touring.

Whatever the lineup of Lost in the Trees, it is clear that Picker’s abilities will shine through as they have since his first solo EP, the eponymous Lost in the Trees. He is currently writing a symphony based on the musical seeds planted in All Alone in an Empty House. Picker has proven just as likely to write a simple folk song that will break your heart as he is to compose a complex orchestral piece that will engage your mind.

Either way, Ari Picker’s Lost in the Trees has found an exciting musical direction. - Southeast Performer Magazine


"Entertainment Weekly Profile"

FEBRUARY 8, 2007 — Lots of people want to compose for film but few succeed, because when you have people like Philip Glass pushing out haunting scores for The Hours and the recent Notes on a Scandal, it's hard to get an edge. But there is hope for newcomers, like Ari Picker and his Lost in the Trees project. He's recorded a concept album that sounds like an amazing score -- so who cares if it's not connected to any real film? Check out ''Tall Trees,'' with its haunting cello and melancholy violins. It's a sublime blending of Tchaikovsky's ''Peter and the Wolf'' with a dash of Vivaldi and the vocal stylings of a suaver Ben Gibbard from Death Cab. Time Taunts Me comes out March 20.

What say you Popwatchers? How long before we hear Ari's work in a theater near us? - Entertainment Weekly


"Pitchfork Media Review"

APRIL 6, 2007 — Score 7.1 — Ambition runs high on Ari Picker's first record as Lost in the Trees, a brief but intensely lush collection of seven songs that last just 26 minutes yet still feels like a full-length album. Picker's projects all seem to have something big about them-- he's also in a band called the Never, who last year released an album called Antarctica that came with a full-color picture book illustrated by bandmate Noah Smith. On this one, the big things are the orchestrations. Though he's only working with a small group of musicians, including a string quartet, the final product sounds a lot larger, mostly thanks to studio trickery.

Opener "Lost in the Snow" begins with fractured programming soon joined by sweeping strings and a choral countermelody that's likely sampled or sequenced. It's a huge, ear-grabbing intro for a song that, once the vocals come in, is itself almost impossibly tiny-- just Picker's gentle tenor dueting with Jessica Smith's jazzy bass trombone. The vocal section almost feels like an interlude for the symphonic grandeur that surrounds it, and the coda returns the strings back before pulling away for a piano that embodies the winter theme of the lyrics.

The album isn't mixed continuously, but it has the feel of a suite because of the way Picker builds his songs from contrasting sections and keeps the sound consistent across the record. Consistency can work against an album, of course, but Picker gets around this by introducing alien textures into the sound at strategic points that immediately stand out for their otherness. For instance, "Tall Trees" kicks in with woodwinds riding a brisk, clipped beat, and then pulls the strings in around it, with a funky cello part underlying a very Vivaldi composition for the other strings. The woodwind texture flows into the next song, "I've Always Loved the Fall", which in turn splits open the center of the album (and its own pastoral atmosphere) with a decidedly ungodly church organ passage.

There are a lot of influences at play here. "If You're Afraid of the Dark" is basically an ornate folk tune, replete with beautiful male/female harmonies, while "For Elizabeth & John" could've wandered from a Carter Burwell or Mark Mothersbaugh score. Looking at the cover art, it seems pretty clear Kid A's had at least a few spins in Picker's house, and you can hear the influence here and there in the electro-acoustic mix.

Picker's ambition mostly pays off on Time Taunts Me, a very promising debut that seems stuffed with ideas. Picker has the talent, clearly-- his biggest shortcoming at this point is that his arrangements are often more memorable than the vocal meat of his songs. Even so, that's as much a reflection on how sharp those arrangements are as anything else, and this is ultimately a solid collection of orchestral indie pop from a guy with the potential to be very good indeed. - Pitchfork Media


"Pop Matters Review"

MARCH 13, 2007 — Watch out Owen Pallet, here comes Ari Picker. Much like his Canadian counterpart, Picker—the mastermind behind Chapel Hill-based Lost in the Trees—mixes his love of classical music with all the modern glory of 21st century pop. But Picker takes it all one step further on Time Taunts Me: there are harpsichords, but there are also Radiohead-style electronic beats; there are passages of nothing but strings, but others sound like your typical acoustic indie rock. So maybe it’s not surprising that the record sounds a lot like the soundtrack to your favourite indie film. And it’s no coincidence—Picker also writes film scores. In fact, given the range of talents displayed on this record, and the existential angst of the lyrics, maybe it’s Jon Brion who needs to start watching his back. - Pop Matters


"Losing Today Magazine Review"

FEBRUARY 9, 2007 — Lost in the Trees ‘Time taunts me’ (Trekky). Frankly getting ridiculous now - no sooner do we put one corking record back in its sleeve to be filed close at arms length then another tasty gem quickly assumes the vacant spot and with that vies for our unfailing affection. It won’t come as any surprise that Lost in the Trees have been up to this point previously unknown to me, they are the brainchild of one Ari Picker and the ‘Time taunts me’ set is the fruition of 7 years tinkering alone throughout stolen moments reclaimed between fronting both the b-sides and the Never. The seven tracks that feature within on this debut solo effort reveal a lush trip like introduction to a beguiling magical world zig zagging beats, crisply worked folk accents (the jaunty chest beating campfire carolling ‘If you’re afraid of the dark’), baroque bridges (’For Elizabeth John’ with its casual nod in the direction of Momus) and colourfully co-ordinated orchestral arrangements. With the assistance of a nine piece orchestra Picker has carved a truly beautiful and shyly tragic collection whose nearest reference marker is Brighton based Oddfellows Casino - albeit on this occasion as though charged and caressed by invisible celestial bodies. The sweetly soured ‘Lost in the Snow’ opens the proceedings - seductively scored with a sumptuous cortege of swirling strings underpinned by trip hop beats and a crookedly wonky banjo solo, think of the Left Banke tenderly trekking through noire-esque backdrops leaving Pickers frail and fragile vocal to softly sap whatever emotional resolve that still remains unscathed. The elegiac ’Time taunts me’ is a truly lilting chocolate box assortment of classically honed treats that stealthy unwraps in stature from its musical box like gently worked tenderised introduction of pirouetting keys to full blooded dramatic overhangs threaded resplendently with a vibrant haze of sweeping strings a la Nyman’s ’Draughtsman’s Contract’ score that congregate to a crushing crescendo to heartbreakingly recline into a bounteous Brontean beauty. Similarly affected the graceful ’Tall Trees’ hides beyond the shaded glades that finitely separate Radiohead and Nick Drake while the sets best moment arrives in the luxuriant and delicately numbing deathly chill of ’I’ve always loved the fall’ which is cast within a darkly romanticised setting as to suggest it could have easily fallen through the macabre cracks of one of Tim Burton’s gothic animations. The arresting end game ’Time. It will not erase me’ which leads out the set will see to it there’s not a dry eye in the house once this trembling gem has seen fit to stop you in your tracks with its introspective glare and life flashing past you presence. A touching treat for all. - Losing Today Magazine


"Transform Magazine Review"

MARCH 9, 2007 — The more strings the better, I say. When an album invites you in with strings and dancey electronic beats, it’s a good sign that you’ll get more than just a five-piece indie record. Lost In The Trees is a blend of acoustic guitars, pianos, a full orchestra, electronic beats, organs, banjos, and a few other instruments culled together to make an album of short stories. Time Taunts Me is a soundtrack to a movie not yet filmed. Ari Picker is the solo artist of this folk-ish vessel. He’s managed, however, in the process of crafting his albums over the past seven years to corral a full arrangement of musicians behind him to bring depth and broadness of sound. It’s a cinematic musical endeavor, similar in scope to a movie score rather than an album in the traditional sense. It’s epic and colorful and vibrant and yields more than a handful of beautiful images painted into the soundscape. Each track defies pop song structure, but manages to convey excellent songwriting craft nonetheless. The album is a bit on the short side, containing only seven songs all around the five-minute mark. Picker’s music has contiguity in its sound and through its style of composition. What the album lacks through its brevity, it more than makes up for in its uniqueness and its gorgeous textures. Picker’s voice and guitar work conjures up Poor Rich Ones while his songwriting lends itself more to that of Badly Drawn Boy. All in all, this is a great beginning for an artist, and I’d like to hear a good deal more from Lost In The Trees with future albums. Although it’s hard to glean much more than a beginning from his work here, Time Taunts Me definitely shows potential for great things to come. - Transform Magazine


"3hive Review"

FEBRUARY 10, 2007 -- Part of the reason I'm dropping a Saturday two-fer on your ears is the overwhelming guilt of having missed the last two Saturdays. I mean, I used to be good for two posts a week and then some...take a look at me now. The other part of the reason is Ari Picker, singer/songwriter/pianist extraordinaire. His latest release as Lost in the Trees is the cinematic (in the Danny Elfman sense of the word) Time Taunts Me. It's big and orchestral and at the same time intimate and folksy. The big and orchestral part can be attributed to the cast of fellow Berklee School of Music classical music students he convinced to breathe life into his arrangements. The intimate and folksy part is all Ari whose his whispered delivery and careful sentimentality give the whole thing a nice, soft underbelly. Big and orchestral blend with intimate and folksy to create a compelling and vaguely menacing landscape — like dark thunder clouds rolling over meticulous fields of wheat. The concept album bug seems to be spreading across everything Ari touches, when you look at where his indie pop/rock group The Never went with their latest—which leads me to Part Two of the two-fer... - 3hive.com


"The Independent Weekly Feature"

MARCH 21, 2007 — In her essay "On Keeping a Notebook," Joan Didion describes diarists as "children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss." Of course, she's talking about herself. But she could just as well be talking about Ari Picker, Lost in the Trees mastermind and ex-member of the Never, whose music is uncommonly elegiac for a young man.

Sad boys with guitars are usually sad about girls, but Picker's harder to pin down. He's a young musician who doesn't like to tour. He records for local indie label Trekky and sings like Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, but he studies at Boston's Berklee College of Music. He doesn't even follow indie rock. He's an admitted control freak who finds himself embroiled in numerous collaborative efforts, from soundtracks to ballet scores.

His music is just as contradictory: He couches his sorrowful lyrics in cloying pop-folk with sprightly orchestral flourishes and cinematic flair. No surprise, then, that his broadly stroked lyrics are rooted in something more substantial than romantic heartache. "This record hints at extreme childhood stuff," he confides. "I'm doing this to get it out into the open."

At 25, Picker is at the right age for settling the emotional debts we all accrue in childhood, and Time Taunts Me, a new Lost in the Trees EP that employs a revolving cast of Berklee players, is obliquely taken up with Picker's relationship with his parents. "My father walked into the room one day and told me that he was really horrified of dying," Picker states flatly. "He's pushing 70 and is carrying a lot of guilt with him. I don't feel like he can relieve himself of that guilt and is going to go to his deathbed with it, which I find scary and fascinating at the same time."

If Picker's looking for some sort of redemption though this honesty, he's found it in at least one sense: The difficult process of reconciliation has seldom sounded so sweet. - The Independent Weekly


"Americana UK Review"

FEBRUARY 26, 2007 — Packing seven tracks into 27 minutes, Lost in the Trees is a project by guitarist Ari Picker, North Carolina based member of The Never. Classically trained he has roped in a mini orchestra comprised of chums from Berklee Collage of Music to craft this fine miniature.

Picker’s voice is light and airy, conversely the lyrics are bleak, cold and lonely. Despite this the overall feel is warm and organic, inventive keyboards (cinematic organ, harpsichord) and the orchestra provide colour and wrap themselves around the songs. Opening song, “Lost in the Snow” is the least successful on the record. With a vibrant string part reminiscent at times of Michael Nyman, it is at odds with the morbid lyrics. From here on in however the mood settles and singer and band are in accord. The title of the second song, “Time taunts me” evokes memories of Nick Drake and while not suggesting that there is any similarity in sound there is an affinity to the images and preoccupations of the doomed Drake. The mournful cello part merely reinforces this. “If you’re afraid of the Dark” is a similar piece of writing marred only by an atrocious and glaringly bad rhyme, (Where are you? If you’re lost at your house/and you can’t find your key/take it out on the mouse!). Perhaps unfair to pick on this as this is a glorious song with excellent backing vocals from Alexandra Spalding, by far the best on the album as Picker strums his way through an introspective, resigned view of life’s loneliness. - Americana UK


"Birmingham Weekly Review"

MARCH 15, 2007 — Co-opting his fellow students from the Berklee College of Music to add an orchestral flair to his indie-folk stylings, Ari Picker’s latest project, Lost in the Trees, is nothing short of incredible. Picker put together a small army of musicians to create lush, moody, dynamic compositions. Along with the nine-piece orchestra, featuring viola, cello, upright bass, trombone, melodica and banjo, Picker enlisted friends and former band mates from The Never, the B-sides, Squirrel Nut Zippers, lo and Vibrant Green.

The new EP, Time Taunts Me, compiles seven songs Picker has written over the last seven years, making it a pseudo “Best of” album. But here these works have completely matured. Layers of pianos, strings and samples accompany Picker’s haunting Thom Yorke-esque vocals. The deft production pulls together what could have easily become an overcrowded mess. The orchestral parts are blended beautifully, never dominating over Picker’s fragile falsetto and his acoustic, and is even occasionally handled with a hip-hop sensibility not unlike Owen Pallett’s solo project, Final Fantasy.

This is the best release so far this year and there is no reason not to seek it out. Beg, borrow, steal – whatever you need to do. Get this album.
- Birmingham Weekly


Discography

All Alone in an Empty House LP, Trekky Records, 2008
Time Taunts Me EP. Trekky Records, 2007.

Photos

Bio

Lost in the Trees is a folk orchestra from Chapel Hill, NC, led by composer/songwriter Ari Picker. All Alone in an Empty House is the anticipated follow up to the critically lauded Time Taunts Me EP, released last year by Trekky Records. The new album shows ringleader Ari Picker fully realizing and extending his compelling synthesis of American folk and traditional classical music and showing that disparate musical styles really stem from a common voice. While Picker certainly utilizes his professional training from the esteemed Berklee College of Music, All Alone In An Empty House is far from the cold calculation and gridded “correctness” some associate with classical music. Rather, it is intensely personal (almost uncomfortably so) and never allows the rules of classical music to limit the emotional weight delivered in each song.

Picker draws heavily from his autobiography, exploring how the relationship between his parents went on to affect his own relationships with loved ones in his life. He is not attempting to take sides or place blame for the traumatic influence of his parents. He is simply trying to recreate the byproduct emotions that came from dealing with issues such as bipolar disorder, self-absorption, artistic creativity, mathematical proficiency, and sexual and emotional abuse. Picker uses the unifying familiarity of traditional folk to face these haunting issues with optimism, not dread, and uses his orchestra of strings and horns to objectively correlate the feeling of the song to the listener. Thematically and sonically, All Alone in An Empty House is extremely intimate.

The album was recorded by Ryan Pickett (My Morning Jacket) with the help of Picker. Additional tracking was done at The Owl Room, Trekky Records' new in-house studio. Picker's orchestra features members of the Trekky Records Collective, professional classical musicians and student musicians from local universities.

All Alone In An Empty House has been released in one multi-format package which includes a compact disc, a vinyl record and a coupon for a free 320 kbps MP3 digital download of the album. Lost in the Trees and Trekky Records are offering this new “everything you could ever need” package as a response to the growing changes in the way people buy music. Both entities believe buying hard copy music and truly interacting with records is a crucial supporting leg to the world of music, and refuse to bow to the digital-only movement. This package should serve every kind of music listener, save the stubborn 8-track listeners of yesteryear.

Since the release of "Time Taunts Me" in March, Lost in the Trees has earned praise from Pitchfork Media, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, PopMatters, IGN, 3Hive and dozens more print sources.

The buzz surrounding Lost in the Trees has already landed lead composer Ari Picker scoring work with many independent filmmakers.