Lowland Hum

Lowland Hum, the multisensory artistic collaboration of husband and wife duo Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank Goans will self-release Native Air, their first full-length album on August 6th.

The self produced Native Air was recorded at Daniel’s parents’ home and mixed by Rick Parker, who’s recent work with Lord Huron they admired. The album was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign and was mastered by Brent Lambert at Kitchen Mastering in Carrboro, NC.

Although folk music is the primary medium of Lowland Hum, the band incorporates a curated multisensory experience to fully engage audiences during their live show. Inspired by Lauren’s independent design and publishing business, Florida House Press, the band seeks to seamlessly integrate visual, musical and even olfactory methods during performances. The duo create illuminated art installations to frame their performances, distribute handmade lyric booklets and bread from local bakeries to cultivate a communal experiences.

Daniel and Lauren met while he was working on his solo album where she quickly became one of his most trusted collaborators, singing on four tracks. Shortly thereafter, they married and formed Lowland Hum. The pair were drawn to the name as it alludes to “what is felt but not seen; the buzzing electricity underneath everything.” The pair write and record all their songs collaboratively working to arrange songs and harmonies while performing in unison with one another. - Alt Sounds

Music history has a long line of husband and wife duos: Arcade Fire’s Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, The Weepies Deb Talan and Steven Tannen, Johnny and June Cash, maybe Jack and Meg White? Here is a new couple for the list: Daniel and Lauren Goans, the married members of Lowland Hum. Like all great music industry love stories, the two met while working on their own solo projects, got hitched, and started a band. Native Air is their first album together. It was brought to fruition with the help of a Kickstarter campaign and Rick Parker, who mixed Lord Huron’s most recent album.

Their folky, ethereal music is created with minimal instrumentation. It’s mostly a guitar and a tambourine paired with their powerful vocal harmonies. Muted drums, the occasional stringed instrument, or a synth round out the album.

The musical minimalism leaves room for their rich, poetic lyrics. Native Air is laden with symbolism and pastoral metaphors that evoke Robert Frost and William Wordsworth more than any current musical artists.

No song encapsulates this better than the nearly six-minute “Albatross.” The high and lows that accompany hope and disillusionment are explored lyrically, and the music reflects the dichotomy. For those who aren’t aware or don’t want to Google search it, an albatross has the largest wingspan of any bird still alive (up to twelve feet) and is admired for its grace and efficiency in the air. In his poem “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge established the albatross as a symbol of nature and good fortune. Lowland Hum’s portrayal of the albatross is perhaps a story of themselves, rising above negativity and hopelessness. This is a theme on the album and prevalent on songs like “War Is Over” and “Linens.”

The whole album is as lyrically dense as “Albatross,” aside from the sweet song “Twine” about a retreat to their cabin in woods (which very well may be an elusive metaphor for achieving marital bliss). If you’re feeling like it’s all a little too much to unpack, let Lowland Hum’s videos be your guide.

Aside from making beautiful albeit complicated music, the Goanses are multisensory artists who personally craft cool videos featuring their lyrics. They’ve made these videos for an alternate version of “Albatross” (released on The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog) and for the compelling song, “War Is Over” (released on NPR’s First Watch). Their songs are easier to understand in the context of video and when the lyrics can be easily read. All of their lyrics are also available on their Bandcamp page.

Lauren Goans told WSJ’s Speakeasy that, “[Lowland Hum] prefers to provide our listeners with access to our lyrics whenever possible, whether that be on the Internet or at our live performances...we hoped to offer the viewer something beautiful, a companion of sorts, to guide them through the song.”

The band also provides a multi-sensory experience at shows, creating backdrop art installations, handmade lyrics booklets, and even offering bread from local bakeries! Their music, of course, offers nourishment of its own. Hopefully one of these promising shows is coming your way. - Best New Bands

In live theater, there is an imaginary “fourth wall” that separates the actors from the audience. “Breaking the fourth wall” means speaking directly to the audience, or at least acknowledging their presence.
Yet, in musical concert settings, past the perfunctory “Hello, Cleveland” and the rote banter with the audience, it is almost unheard of.
That is, until Lowland Hum came along.
This duo of Daniel and Lauren Goans has not only broken down the fourth wall, they have eliminated the other three, as well.
They don’t merely engage the audience, they embrace it, invite it into the show, make it an integral part of the evening.
In Zen terms, they “become” the audience.
Billed as a multisensory artistic collaboration, the musical and life partners incorporate components that take their show into the realm of an event, sometimes a transformative one. Even their name alludes to that which is felt but not seen, the buzzing electricity underneath everything.
“We are not delivering you a show,” said Daniel Goans, “we are all sharing an experience together.
“People are meant to be addressed as whole person. The pace of life can be frightening, and our hope is that we can help facilitate this experience where all your senses are engaged, and it becomes a kind of healing, restorative experience.”
This holistic approach to music involves passing out handmade lyric sheets to the audience, Q&A sessions, breaking home-baked bread, the use of essential oils, and a backlit canopy-like installation that unites artist and audience.
“Certain scents will evoke a particular memory,” said Lauren Goans, who has a studio art degree from UNCG. “It all goes toward cultivating a communal experience.”
Still, the centerpiece of the experience must obviously be the music, and fortunately, it stands on its own merit.
Even without the accoutrements, the lyrics, harmonies, musicianship and melodies of Lowland Hum would be worth the price of admission.
Daniel Goans had released two solo CDs and an EP, as well as touring and recording with the Chapel Hill-based indie-pop group The War before this latest collaboration with his angelic-voiced wife. Also a producer with several credits on his résumé, this effort, titled “Native Air,” was self-produced, recorded at their home studio and financed with a successful Kickstarter campaign.
“Lauren actually sang on about half the cuts of my last record,” said Daniel Goans, who has a degree in English literature from UNC-Chapel Hill. “Then we started collaborating, and somewhere along the way fell in love. I know it sounds cheesy, but we co-wrote pretty much everything on this record and wanted to try to express everything on it as one voice.”
The CD was released Tuesday, and the occasion will be celebrated Friday at Glenwood Coffee and Books.
“The owner, Alan Brilliant, is a dear friend of mine, and we’re pulling out all the stops,” Daniel Goans said. “A brewmaster is making a special beer for that night, and The Loaf is baking two kinds of bread for us to pass out. So we’ll all have beer and bread before the show.”
They then will embark on a 15-city East Coast tour that will include stops in Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York. They will swing back through their hometown on Sept. 10 for a live radio appearance on NPR’s “All Things Considered” originating from Triad Stage’s Upstage Cabaret.
“The folks at NPR have become big supporters of ours,” Daniel Goans said. “They put our songs in their rotation and premiered the video of our single ‘War Is Over’ (produced by Lauren) on their ‘First Watch’ show.”
Indeed, the buzz has started about this charismatic local duo. Or is it a hum? - News-Record

Unless a coed folk duo has a name as loaded as The Civil Wars, interpersonal tension and strife isn’t the first thing you’d expect to come through in the music. Husband-and-wife indie-folk outfit Lowland Hum is way at the opposite end of the spectrum; so harmonious is the spirit of their performances that they practically invite the audience into their living room, going so far as to hand out handmade lyric books and fresh-baked bread at their shows. Native Air — onetime Nashvillian Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank Goans’ first album as Lowland Hum — is every bit the Kickstarter-funded, home-recorded, gingerly layered affair. And there are arty DIY videos to go with the songs, whose lyrics tend to be impressionistic, multisensory and scriptural in nature and whose wispy, languid melodies the Goans often intone in unison. Caleb Groh, Heidi Feek and Casey Black are also on the bill. - Nashville Scene

There was an almost cosmic patience inherent in the songs of Daniel Levi Goans’ 2011 LP BrotherStranger, his second solo album to come out of a 10-year songwriting career that included a lengthy stint in the War. The over 7-minute opener “Albatross” is a circuitous maze of builds and releases over a tender piano melody, and the title track is a sublimating male-female vocal harmony that winds around on itself as if Goans doesn’t want the piece to end — which maybe he didn’t, given that the song itself was the soundtrack to Goans and his vocal accompaniment Lauren Plank falling in love.
“I didn’t know where that relationship was going at the time, so I didn’t want her to be on the whole record, thinking, ‘What if it doesn’t work out and the whole sound is built around this harmony that won’t exist anymore?’” Daniel Levi said during a Saturday morning interview with the couple. “But those sounds were my favorite ones on the record, and we got engaged a month before that it was released.”
That record wasn’t just the start of a new chapter in the Goans’ lives, but a new creative partnership, as Lowland Hum was born. Just as married couples have to learn to live with one another, the Goans were handed the added tension of working out a new sound over a year and a half on the road together. On one hand, Daniel Levi had the benefit of a decade as a professional musician, while Lauren initially had to be coaxed into singing during the porch jams where their relationship would begin, and again so on the BrotherStranger tracks. The couple’s independent debut as Lowland Hum, Native Air (released Aug. 6), is the fruit of working trough those tensions, documenting their newfound identity and lingering personal connections through a deeply spiritual lens.
“We’re trying to express in this music that there’s this underlying, electric buzz connecting everything, and there are these moments where you can have some kind of connection,” Daniel Levi said. “I do think space and how things are connected in it has been a big part in what I’m doing in the past, some out if necessity and some out of giving people space to explore the song and find their own connections. I feel drawn into music that has that kind of space.”
Ever the facilitators, Daniel Levi and Lauren are opening a lengthy East Coast tour this Friday night at Glenwood Coffee & Books with a unique presentation of Lowland Hum’s numinous folk explorations. Lauren, a visual artist, created a tent-like atmosphere for the show and crafted handmade lyric books for audience members, essential oil burners will heighten the ambiance, local bakery Loaf is providing fresh-baked breads and a friend has brewed a special batch of beer to be served during their performance. If it sounds a bit like a communion, it’s an uncalculated reflection with the couple’s deeply held spirituality, but intended to be a communal experience nonetheless.
“I wanted a place for people to enter into, not just a sonic space, but a physical space where everyone shares a similar experience,” she said. “It’s not just intended to be an individual experience, but a collective experience for us as well.”
“There’s all these elements that can enhance the experience, the type of night where all your senses are addressed is kind of healing,” added Daniel Levi. “Someone told me the artist’s job is to direct people’s attention toward overlooked beauty in the world, so experiencing something together should be no accident.”
The nature of the music itself lends itself exceptionally to the concept of Lowland Hum’s live presentation. Similar to how Julian Koster scored his Traveling Imaginary performances, the music is spare and focused. The sumptuous arrangements that Goans used on BrotherStranger have been stripped down to primarily two voices and guitar with slight percussive accents. A re-imagined “Albatross” finds its way onto Native Air, reduced in time and scope, yet somehow seeming cavernous and humbling to behold thanks to mixing by Rick Parker, also recently responsible for Lord Huron’s Lonesome Dreams. It’s a thoughtful, meditative work that delves deep into the emotional being of the Goans as a couple and individually, but often it’s those hushed spaces that reveal the most. Like Uma Thurman asserted in Pulp Fiction, you know you’ve found the right person when you can comfortably share a quiet moment.

Lowland Hum will debut Native Air live this Friday night at Glenwood Coffee and Books. - Yes Weekly

Daniel Levi Goans couldn’t figure out where that gorgeous harmony was coming from.

He was at a party, down from the shore of Maryland to visit friends in his home state of North Carolina. He’d met Lauren Blank through mutual friends, but when we discovered she was the one singing along to a song on the stereo, he saw her in an entirely new light.

“I was listening, trying to figure out what version of the song it was, and then I turned around and realized this beautiful woman was singing this perfect, beautiful harmony,” he told The Daily Times this week. “She says that I told her she should sing on my record, which wasn’t a great pickup line; I thought I said, ‘You should sing with me.’ I had some people over to jam on the porch, and she started coming over.”

A veteran of the band The War, Goans was in the midst of making a solo album — “BrotherStranger” — and as he became more enamored with Plank’s voice and the woman herself, he asked her to contribute vocals to a few songs.

“Not more than half, because then I would be committing myself, and I didn’t know if she was into this,” he added. “But by the time we released the record, we were engaged, and by then I knew this was for real.”

And so began the transformation of a couple — from a singer-songwriter and his harmony vocalist to a duo of equal proportions, a husband-and-wife band called Lowland Hum, which performs in Knoxville next week. The band’s new album, “Native Air,” was released earlier this month, and it’s a work of exquisite beauty — sparse instrumentation, vocals intertwined in a manner that call to mind both the Civil Wars and Wye Oak but with more restraint, less bombast and a deeper journey into the rivers of beauty and pain that criss-cross the human heart.

Today, they call Greensboro, N.C., home. Goans grew up there before hitting the road with the pop-rock band that changed names from Starting Tuesday to The War; as a solo artist, he pursued the quieter, hushed-but-powerful styles of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Plank, having grown up in Idaho and sheltering her exquisite singing voice (think former East Tennessee chanteuse Jill Andrews) from the world, was a visual artist who moved to the Tarheel State with her family when she was 9.

As the two fell in love and married, Goans nurtured and called forth her musical talent, and it only made sense that his solo project make room and expand for the budding beauty of his new bride’s voice.

“As we transitioned into her singing more and more with me, and then we got married and she quit her job and we went on the road, I just realized that her musical gifting is pretty vast, so the more leeway I gave her in the songs, the more the songs changed,” he said. “Then she asked if she could join me for a writing session; I was pretty nervous about that, because that might not have gone well, but the chemistry was there. There was some tension, but I think the type that when worked through produces something really meaningful. I realized her presence really changed the music, and as her visual art became a part of things, I realized this was not the Daniel Levi Goans solo project; this was something else.”

Together, they crafted “Native Air,” which in turn became the sound of two people exploring new love, combining lives and setting forth on a journey that would take them to places previously unheralded in their lives apart from one another. National Public Radio fell in love with Lowland Hum, debuting the video for “War Is Over,” and as they found their footing as a musical unit, they realized that the music they craft together fits their unique dynamic.

“For a while, we had a band, and we realized that part of the essence of the songs was the sparseness, and also we hit the reality that we can’t afford to bring a band with us,” Goans said. “I think that’s where the Lowland Hum sound started — realizing that we can’t sustain a six-piece band, and that we can reinvent these songs for a duo setting that is somehow convincing and connects. It forced us to leave space in the songs where there would have been lush instrumentation surging up.”

And with Lauren’s artistic leanings — the two carry with them an art installation that’s an elaboration of the album art, an array of paper art arranged around the performance space to resemble a forest — a Lowland Hum show becomes an experience more so than a concert, Goans added.

“She says that she’s wanting to give another visual component to the performance so it’s not people just looking at us, and so that all of us exist in this new environment we’re bringing with us,” he said. “We’re all there together.”

Just like the Goans themselves — in the thick of it, both music and marriage, for better or for worse, in good times and bad.

“I think tension worked out, or even tension lived in, is where a lot of my favorite music comes from,” he added. “People willing to face that and stick that out find beauty and truth, and I - The Daily Times

This is going to be a little different from my other posts...here's why: i Have no idea who these two are and my sister is the one that found them! Lots of props to her. Please enjoy my sister's post about Lowland Hum! Meanwhile, i'm off to go download some serious..Hum's!!

"When Theo invited me to write a post for his blog, I couldn't decide where to start. Who are the 'undiscovered's' that I listen to? Who would I want to do a review of?

I get most of my music recommendations now from my little brother. It's pretty awesome because I can just sit back and listen to whatever he recommends! I think it used to be the other way around where I was the one finding the good music out there..... ;) [<--She nailed it here. Exactly what happened back in the day. Thanks sis, for starting me off right!]

I went to a house show recently where a guy named Daniel Levi Goans played -- I had never heard of him before but he was showing up at my friend's house so of course I went to check him out! He played with his wife and the two of them together was an unbelievable combination. Their harmonies and melodies are mind-blowing. It's no wonder they decided this January to form a band together and now are known as Lowland Hum. These two (DLG and Lauren) are from North Carolina and got married in Feb. 2012. They are a "folk" duo with super great lyrics and mellow tunes. The way they get around the US is from house show to house show. You should sign up to host them!! They are so great live. Grab a free download and learn more about them at their Bandcamp page or main site here!

I have their BrotherStranger album which is fabulous and I highly recommend giving "How Long" a shot too.

So give them some love! Like them on Facebook please and track their travels down here. Did I mention Daniel's got the sweetest mustache?" - Unique Undiscovered Tunes

It's rare when I feel like I've found good music. A lot of my friends listen to a lot more of it than I do. A lot of good music. They're usually the ones who enlighten me. That's how I found originally found out about bands like Pond, Radiohead, Lymbyc Systym, Grizzly Bear… You get the idea. Sooo…less than a year ago, I discovered the All Songs Considered podcast hosted by Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton. This was a defining moment in my musical development as an aging 30-something. *COUGH-36!-COUGH* It's not that good music is hard to find. It's finding the time to find good music. NPR's podcast has given me a way to get a spectrum of styles and tastes that I normally would never go for, much less give them a chance. Thanks to this little podcast I've found bands like alt-J, Tame Impala, Woods, Low, and Small Multiples. Is this an NPR plug? Newp. Regardless, here I sit singing praise. I have a point. I am going somewhere with this. Just pick up the bread crumbs. Mk?

Recently I was listening to an All Songs episode and one band really stuck out. Lowland Hum was introduced as a husband and wife duo from North Carolina. The song I heard was called War Is Over. Listen. Full disclosure. I'm not a writer nor do I know how to review music. That being said…the song was fucking great. Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank Goans have the most amazing voices and harmonies that intertwine beautifully. I'm not gonna try to put their music into a specific category. Just give them a listen. You won't regret it.

Their upcoming album Native Air, releases in early August and was recorded in Daniels' parent's house in Greensboro. Why not in a studio? Well, maybe because the album was made possible by funding from a Kickstarter campaign. They asked for $12K and they got $12K. God Bless Amerka. While collaborating on Daniel's previous solo album BrotherStranger the two fell in love. A year later they were married and restructuring their musical style to fit their new life. Let me tell you people. They found a style, and it's sounds gorgeous. I've found them on Facebook, Twitter, and I've even had conversations with their manager via Gmail asking when they'll be coming to Austin. (Hopefully this fall) I've checked out some of their other songs on their YouTube channel , preordered their album on iTunes and so far I've liked everything I've heard. I can't wait. With some luck, maybe I'll be posting a follow-up blog this fall gushing about how I saw them at Cactus Cafe or Lucky Lounge. We'll see.

-J - Austin Sessions

Got this track in the ol’ inbox today and I dug it immediately. The band reminds me of The Everybodyfields. Here’s the lowdown on Lowland Hum.

Lowland Hum, the multisensory artistic collaboration of husband and wife duo Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank Goans will self-release Native Air, their first full-length album on August 6.The self produced Native Air was recorded at Daniel’s parents’ home and mixed by Rick Parker, who’s recent work with Lord Huron they admired. The album was funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign and was mastered by Brent Lambert at Kitchen Mastering in Carrboro, NC.

Although folk music is the primary medium of Lowland Hum, the band incorporates a curated multisensory experience to fully engage audiences during their live show. Inspired by Lauren’s independent design and publishing business, Florida House Press, the band seeks to seamlessly integrate visual, musical and even olfactory methods during performances. The duo create illuminated art installations to frame their performances, distribute handmade lyric booklets and bread from local bakeries to cultivate a communal experiences.

Daniel and Lauren met while he was working on his solo album where she quickly became one of his most trusted collaborators, singing on four tracks. Shortly thereafter, they married and formed Lowland Hum. The pair were drawn to the name as it alludes to “what is felt but not seen; the buzzing electricity underneath everything.” The pair write and record all their songs collaboratively working to arrange songs and harmonies while performing in unison with one another. - Hear Ya

Greensboro's music scene doesn't get as much attention as my own Triangle scene, but Lowland Hum -- the name under which husband and wife Daniel Levi and Lauren Plank Goans perform -- should change that, and rightfully so. 'War Is Over' is a lush ode to simplicity and peace, hinged on Daniel and Lauren's perfect harmonies and a building orchestration that goes from guitar and tambourine to a symphony of strings and keys, and a simple and simply devastating conclusion.

Lowland Hum's debut record, Native Air, came out this week, on August 6. It's a doozy, and you can pick it up at their Bandcamp.

Stream 'War Is Over' below, and catch them on tour in the Southeast starting in Carrboro at the ArtsCenter on 8/10. - Speakers in Code

If one was going to use the terms organic, singer/songwriters, multifaceted, arts and married couple I'd bet the farm they were speaking about husband and wife duo, Daniel and Lauren Goans, known as Lowland Hum.

These North Carolina natives are out in support of their album Native Air. With standout tracks like "War Is Over", "My House Is Empty", "Albatross" and "Noise of Day" you'll discover the rich harmonies and the no frills recording style of this folk inspired work. It reminds me of sitting in the kitchen as my friends play and sing as the sun fades from the day.

"Part songwriter, part artist, the duo has crafted a multi-sensory performance experience that provides a fertile space for audience members to connect with their art and with a each other as fellow listeners." - Lowland Hum

I had the great opportunity to speak to Daniel and Lauren about their Lowland Hum.

How is the tour going for you guys so far?
We have thoroughly enjoyed the tour so far. The kickoff show for the tour was in our hometown and we enjoyed making it a big deal, complete with a handmade circus tent, a new installation, home brewed beer, and new handmade lyric books. We are playing our fifth show tonight in Durham, NC on a particularly grey day. We've been overwhelmed and encouraged by all the positive responses to the music. We've been chomping at the bit all summer to share these new songs and enjoying reinterpreting them live for people at our shows. Before this tour, we'd been touring with records that were mostly made by myself with a few duets including Lauren. It's a big relief to now be touring with Native Air which better represents us both.

Did you have a passion for music before you two knew each other? Did you record music before or had other band projects?
Daniel has been pursuing a career in music for the past ten years in various bands and forms, the most recent being his solo work. I have always been passionate about music and loved its ability to move me more than anything else, but was too shy and self-conscious to pursue it in any up-front way. After overhearing me singing to myself at a party we were both at (I thought no one could hear me), Daniel invited me to sing with him on one of his albums. Without Daniel's gentle prodding, I doubt I would have ever gained the courage to explore this side of myself. I am very thankful for the loving ways that he challenges me. –Lauren

How important is the art aspect on your shows and what reactions do you get from the audience?
At our shows we employ handmade lyric books and the new installation as art works for our audiences to interact with. We want to give people as many ways to access the songs as possible. Not only do we find it helpful to be able to read along when listening to songs, but we think that something is gained by having a physical object in your hands. The tactile connection is just as much a part of it all. We hope that the installation helps the performance spaces feel set apart and give the audience a visual to focus on besides ourselves. After many shows, people often thank us for offering the option to read the lyrics. They say it helps them connect more deeply with the songs. –Lauren

On the description for your album "Native Air" you said most of the songs were written about your first year of marriage. Was it difficult to put that on paper or an easy way to express all kinds of feelings?
During the writing and recording of this album, we noticed that the most beautiful moments came on the far side of tension. We approach most aspects of our music and performance from two different creative angles and perspectives and we have learned a ton about communication in the last year and a half. I think we both were nervous that if we both brought our ideas to the table and combined them we might end up with a diminished version of both of us. My experience is the opposite. Lauren's additions have augmented and deepened the craft, offering push back on the ways I naturally do things, which has resulted in more thoughtful approaches. –Daniel

Do you have side jobs or is music your main profession at this time?
For the past year or so, music has been our full time profession, although Lauren has done the occasional design job and I've produced five or six projects for bands and songwriters that we've met. –Daniel

What's your favorite track of the album and why?
The songs weren't all written in mind of each other but once we decided which ones would be a part of Native Air and in what order, it has been hard to separate them out from one another. To me they feel like one whole, not fourteen individual moments. With that in mind, the process of arranging and recording the two Edens, was particularly exciting for us. –Lauren

If you could choose any artist who would be the one you would prefer w - Global Texan Chronicles

Daniel Levi Goans is an experienced singer-songwriter with three solo albums. His wife Lauren used to sing harmony to his songs, but then they decided to become true collaborators, writing together under the band name Lowland Hum. Host Frank Stasio talks with the couple about their work and their new album Native Air. - WUNC 91.5 - The State of Things

Not only does Lowland Hum write, perform and produce their own songs, the North Carolina folk duo takes care of their own visuals, too: Lauren Plank Goans worked entirely on her own to create the new video for an alternate version of their song “Albatross,” which premieres today on Speakeasy.

Goans formed Lowland Hum with husband Daniel Levi Goans shortly after marrying him. The pair met while he was working on a solo album. She contributed vocals to four of his songs as their collaboration expanded beyond music into romance. Now they write and arrange their music collaboratively, and are releasing their first album, “Native Air,” Aug. 6.

The video for the alternate “Albatross” (which features piano and brushed drums in place of the acoustic guitar strumming on the album version) employs stop-motion and displays the band’s lyrics in creative ways.

“We prefer to provide our listeners with access to our lyrics whenever possible, whether that be on the Internet or at our live performances,” Lauren Goans told Speakeasy. “In the making of our video for the alternate version of ‘Albatross,’ we hoped to offer the viewer something beautiful, a companion of sorts, to guide them through the song. We love working in stop-motion because it creates a rhythmic visual energy while preserving the essence of the subject matter being captured. We love the concept of using thousands of individual photographs to create something unified, fluid and cohesive.” - Wall Street Journal

Feeling peckish? Check your local listings and see if Lowland Hum is playing a show near you. Word on the street is that North Carolina-based folk duo has been handing out free bread and handmade lyric booklets at each gig. (For the record, we’d recommend staying clear of the booklets unless you’re seriously starving — but go nuts on the baguettes.)

It’s all part of the band’s desire to create “multi-sensory experience.” At the end of the day, though, Lowland Hum keeps most of the focus on the band’s music, which sticks close to the poppy, paired-down folk sound that KaiserCartel once made. Bandmates Daniel and Lauren Plank first met when Daniel was working on a solo album, and what began as a quick series of vocal overdubs — with Lauren singing on four of Daniel’s tracks — quickly blossomed into something bigger. The couple married not too long after that, and Native Air – their self-produced debut, which hits stores next week — traces their path from past to present.

“Although Lauren and I have been working together on different music and art for a few years now,” says Daniel, “Native Air is our first fully collaborative project. The songs come primarily from what has inspired, challenged and disturbed us in the first year and half of our marriage. The processes of both writing and recording this album together have been some of the most enlivening and shaping experiences of my life to date.” - American Songwriter

North Carolina folk-pop duo Lowland Hum are, in some ways, exactly what you might expect from a married couple playing intimate folk songs. Their vocal harmonies are airtight and sweet, their songs shadowy but bolstered by hope and by a shared vision. But where so many folk acts tend towards the spare and the slow—hoping to drag emotion out of us one pulled note at a time—Lowland Hum’s sound is a vibrant one. The vocals on “War Is Over” rise up and out of the track, letting it bloom instead of whispering in the corner of some coffee shop.

The two work well singing together, on the fragile yet lush space of “Albatross” or the faint stomp of “My House Is Empty”, but they also sound great on solo turns. Lauren Plank Goans’ voice is sweet and approachable, so unassuming you might miss its subtle range, while Daniel Levi Goans can hit with a gruff, confessional whisper or a honeyed howl. The best moments here are personal and bracing—“but the strong desire keeps my feet moving,” they sing at one point—which make some grand statements (“I watch my generation sleep”) feel a bit too broad in comparison. Luckily, they focus mostly on small details writ large in these songs, making Native Air a confident and impressive debut. - Pop Matters

Kindred spirits:?Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family

Daniel and Lauren Goans, the married freak-folk duo Lowland Hum, try to evoke the serenity and splendor of their rural North Carolina home on their debut album, “Native Air,” by weaving their appealing high-tenor and soprano voices into intricate harmonies over simple string-band arrangements.

The opening song, “Eden,” sets the tone with pretty acoustic guitar arpeggios, ghostly vowels and lyrics that describe vines bursting through abandoned asphalt to swallow the evil city, a theme also visited on the song “Albatross.”

Syncopation, apparently, is part of urban wickedness, for nearly all the album’s music is delivered via stolid, marching quarter notes. There’s only sporadic percussion, although for the “Albatross” video, the duo added piano and drums for a much more compelling result. The video, however, preserves the juvenile lyric about a mythical figure pulling back a bronze bow to shoot an arrow that destroys all lies.

Like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the Goanses have a song called “War Is Over,” as if good intentions and withdrawal were enough to end conflict. Does it work? Check your newspaper.

— Geoffrey Himes - Washington Post

The power of music paired with imagery never ceases to amaze me. For this video by Lowland Hum, three unrelated sets of found footage connect in powerful ways to the song "War Is Over."

Daniel Levi Goans and Lauren Plank Goans are the husband and wife who make up Lowland Hum. Lauren found the film clips and assembled them together: "The footage used in the video was taken from three different public-domain videos found in the Prelinger Archives," Lauren tells us in an email. "The black-and-white scenes are from a video depicting the aftermath of an earthquake in California. The color footage was taken from both a reel of family home videos and an informative film about two women traveling across America on a Greyhound bus."

Over the course of the Lowland Hum video, there's a dramatic shift from sadness to joy as we go from the stark black-and-white footage of the earthquake to the family films and bright colors. "I used color and the absence of it to explore the clash of goodness and darkness," Lauren writes. "It was important to me to use footage depicting occurrences of daily life, because it is in the day-to-day that we have experienced these two opposing forces."

Daniel Levi Goans adds that the song "came out of a writing weekend at the cabin of some family friends. We were in the midst of a tiring and somewhat discouraging season. The song directly addresses condemning voices and points to the overcoming power of hope."

It's easy to see that hope in the colorful swan dive, or in the parade float in the video, as Lauren and Daniel sing in beautiful harmony that "world war is over now!"

"War Is Over" is the first single from Lowland Hum's self-released debut album Native Air, due out on August 6. - NPR Music's All Songs Considered