One Umbrella

From San Francisco, home of the weirdest music in the world, comes One Umbrella. This duo makes electronic music of the most unusual kind: Abstract, yet utterly coherent.

The coherence comes from a judicious use of rhythm. Each piece is grounded in certain rhythms, which allows the extraneous noise ("melody" and otherwise) to retain shape, even if the ideas themselves aren't exactly rectilinear.

When I say electronic, I mean in that in a production sort of way. An awful lot of the sounds on this disc are made by regular instruments, instruments that are either played or recorded in unusual ways. The assembly is what makes these pieces so exciting. They rise and fall as they tell their stories--and despite the surface cacophony, very little translation is necessary.

Electric and exciting. I will admit, as I always do, that I'm a stone cold sucker for this kind of excursion, but One Umbrella impresses me as few do. This is the sort of experimental abstract album that could well attract a number of converts. Most invigorating. - Aiding & Abetting (www.aidabet.com)

Multi-instrumentalists Sarah Lipstate and Carlos Villarreal only like to give out a little at a time. Solve is a small composite of parts taken either from their self-released Consider the Opposite or from a forthcoming album due out on the Tell All label. It pushes back a tiny set of barriers over a very constricted period of time, deploying kalimba, theremin, synthesizer, and stylophone, alongside more traditional string and keyboard instruments on eight tracks with a collective running time of barely 25 minutes. However, it's on the longer tracks, such as the constantly evolving "OIOI" and the mournful "Eintrocinc", that they really take the time to show what they can do. You may find it's worth waiting for. - The Wire - Reviewed by Ken Hollings

At first glance, One Umbrella's CD contains no liner notes, just a title and song names, none of which are actual words. Upon removing the CD from the case, you notice the liner notes are cleverly hidden behind the actual CD, to be considered only once the CD is taken out and played. And thus us the theme of "Solve:" hidden messages are everywhere in the music but can only be discovered with the lights turned low and the big headphones on. Part electronic improvisation, part structured melodic wanderings, One Umbrella shares delightful surprises only with those patient enough to seek them out. - Stage/Scene (Print Zine- Austin,TX)

Without question, this is the most ambitious album I've heard this year. Sure, I thought Fatboy Slim was ambitious at one time, but the sounds that One Umbrella creates are more than just things for your ears to enjoy. The lofty goals that such a band sets for itself and the listener deserve the highest of congratulations.

Perhaps ironically titled, Solve solves nothing. It is an ostentatious album that's sure to leave a lot of people confused and scratching their heads. Let them scratch their heads and let them be confused because beneath all songs, beneath even the glossiest of pop hits, are sounds that embody all that music starts as; they embody the concepts of sound and aim to recreate noises and beats long gone from popular music and it's this endeavor that makes the album even more spectacular.

"XESTYL" is the musical equivalent of a dentist drill filtered through an outer space modification pedal, and while such a scene may not seem to be particularly attractive listening, it is. "8TRS" is an all too-short, beautiful piano piece with vocals samples. Coming out of the schizophrenic madhouse that was the transition of "XESTYL" into "8TRS" is like moving from the dentist drill to the full anesthesia, and the effects it creates are both gorgeous and haunting. "EINTROCINC" layers itself with droning synth notes and other lulling instruments. Coming across as the soundtrack to a decades old Scottish battle that left millions dead and many more injured, it brings to mind rolling hills and the rising sun. The song continues for 5 minutes, collecting more noises along the way and adding more images to the hills and the suns. Perhaps birds enter the fray, perhaps the baker makes his morning walk to the store. It abruptly ends 5 minutes into the song, cutting off as if, like the sound representation of one's heartbeat, a fatal heart attack pulls the plug on any remaining noise. It's nothing less than a perfect ending for an album that triumphs in balancing on the edge of noise and sound, as if bringing to life the sense of this confusion. It's the musical representation of thought becoming sound and like musical Luddites, there's no gloss added to the product. The sounds just are, and that's all one needs.

To aim for such heights with theremins, Kalimba, and stylophone (instruments most people don't even know, let alone know the sounds they create) is not just brave in so-called "indie- music" it's perfectly insane. But One Umbrella is more important today than ever; it's these sounds that one must search out and grasp onto as more of what we buy, see, smell, and hear is so packaged and so programmed for us that to actually think our own thoughts is downright illegal. These albums that leave so much to the listener are the most important albums of a generation completely engrossed in pre-packaged everything. Country music sells because there's no thought required, as does pop music, but it's bands like One Umbrella that should be selling because it's bands like this open our ears and therefore, open our minds. - CDreviews.com

Notable San Francisco indie label Tell-All Records continues to stretch out their branches opening their doors to the likes of ambient composers One Umbrella. Containing two tracks from their previous LP "Consider the Opposite" mixed with a smattering of all new tracks, "Solve", while only 25 minutes in length, is by all accounts an incredible opus. Taking us on a soundscape odyssey with derived sounds conjured from a slew of experimental methods, One Umbrella fries up the old school thought of reverse tape with renewed curiosity. At times harsh and caustic blended with an array of atmospheric sonic atoms; "Solve" is a hard album to define on its characteristics alone; it's all of that plus the merit and accomplishment of sonic manipulation that will offer that fix to the ambient addict inside each and every one of us. Truly this album is a spectacle for us all to behold. - Smother.net

Some of the best bands of the past several years call Texas their home. Whether we're talking about Conrad and the Trail of Dead or Explosions in the Sky or many other native-Texan musicians, it is simply a hot state for music that defines what people will remember about the 00s. In that sense, One Umbrella, a duo from Austin, certainly qualifies to be respected as a Texan band just like their peers that have already gained considerable amounts of fame. I'm surprised everyone isn't talking about their lush, constantly shifting approach to creating honest feelings through sound. So before Canada (with Arcade Fire, Frog Eyes, Hot Hot Heat, and many more renowned names) takes over Texas as the premier independent band workshop, give these guys a chance and listen to "Eintrocinc."

Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. That's what this song is all about; it feels much more like an actual place that you're stopping to gaze at rather than a song created by instruments. It's actually hard to imagine that instruments were even used to craft something this otherworldly and majestic. It seems that any form of an instrument melts away in the duo's hands, and there's no more buttons or strings or knobs or pipes; the instruments seem to lose those restrictive features and sincerely channel exactly what the musicians want. And when an artist's relationship with his or her tools is that passionate, the effects are magnificent. As "Eintrocinc" runs its course, it's constantly giving off a mood that you can feel changing beneath the layers and layers of beautiful ambience and harmonies. This is one composition that I am blown away by.

If you're a fan of Tarentel's sprawling and noisy soundscapes or Brian Eno's ambient masterpieces, or if you've been waiting for that genre to really click with you, you should not miss out on One Umbrella. This dynamic duo skips the tiresome white-noise and keeps it interesting as the line between having structure and completely winging it is blurred to an unrecognizable state. - Adequacy.net

The evening portion of Saturday began in a small coffeehouse theater with instrumental post-rock duo One Umbrella from Austin, who recently signed to San Francisco's Tell-All Records. They basically make lots of beautiful post-rock noise armed with a laptop and a theremin (and often other instruments). Their improvisational technique makes for a unique and unexpected performance each time out, and you can tell the pair feeds off each other fluidly. A well-done visual accompaniment kept the small audience captivated during the ambient 30-minute performance. It was great to see something a little different after a week filled with so much indie rock, and I can't wait to see them perform out in San Francisco (probably this summer). - SFstation.com

On first impression One Umbrella's music sounds like a whisper, nothing more nothing less. Keep listening, there's a world going on underground. The atmospheric instrumental music created by this Austin, Texas-based duo is deceptively gentle at first, floating along in an eerie but pretty way. There's a lot of complexity and diversity in their sound, however. For starters, their minimalist music weaves together an entrancing assortment of sounds and textures - whirrings, buzzings, blips and melodic notes - many of them hard to place as instruments. Read the list of what instruments they use, and you'll be equally perplexed: guitar, banjo, theremin, piano, organ, glockenspiel, kalimba, synth (plus samples and the catch-all "effects"). At times it's bewildering to imagine these haunted sounds coming from that group of instruments, yet at other times each instrument shines through clearly. This is atmospheric music that isn't just about creating an atmosphere to cloak the listener in; One Umbrella is building a new musical universe out of parts known and unknown. Solve is just a taste of their music, pulling together five tracks from their self-released 2004 album Consider the Opposite and three tracks from their upcoming Tell-All Records full-length. It's enough of a taste to cast a spell over listeners, however. Whether it's the intense electric noise of "Xestyl" or the four peaceful but ghostly minute-long interludes, the music on Solve is captivating and provocative. It's mood music that brings you closer to the speakers, music that refuses to hide in the background even when it's gentle and quiet. - Erasingclouds.com

If there is one strength to pull from this Austin, Texas duo's repertoire, it's their ability to build an entirely different place for you to inhabit while you listen to their music. That place, it up to whoever's experiencing it, it could be an empty closet, a thicket of dead shrubs, a cobweb-ridden attic, or a purgatorial space of grays and whites that change no warning or noticeable seams. One Umbrella creates what from the outside could be summed up as noise, but on the inside, it's cold and atmospheric ambience that's as tapping as it is haunting.


The root of One Umbrella's sound lies in electronic samples, live instrumentation, and a ripe unpredictability. Many folks appear cock-eyed when music like this comes on, there's no beat, hardly a timing signature, and there's no sign of any sort of directed arrangement anywhere. I'll admit that this sort of music (some might not even call it that) isn't the most approachable stuff out there, but this pair's effort is inviting, it guides you into a more storied cache of sounds, emotions, thoughts, and hopefully, more groups like them.


The opening track "itxitxx" (all of the songs have such fittingly nonsensical titles...unless I'm missing something, which I probably am), combines plucks of strings with echoed theremin cycles... at least I think that's a theremin. Every song strikes a different chord with you and places you somewhere else, making you feel different emotions and comforts. After the rainy sprawl of "itxitxx", "0101" throws you into a haunting clutter of whirrs and backward synths. Picture an old living room with grimy wood floors and walls overcome by moss and rot, in the middle of the room there's a dirty card table spinning on one leg, keeping a steady speed. Welcome, are you moved yet?


Perhaps the most enveloping and most traditionally musical of the eight tracks on this EP is the final "eintrocinc". A yearning collection of synths, strings, and samples that immediately snaps a photograph of a rainy 1930's neighborhood on the minute that every man who's worked almost all of the life out of himself is coming home from the unforgiving factory. They're all walking slowly, the rain's a light drizzle, enough to be an inconvenience, it's cold, their faces all smudged with grime and riddled with premature age due to their sixty-five hour weeks of heat and labor. Rough hands, thinning hair, cracking skin. Feet trapped in work boots, anticipating their albeit brief release. And then the sun comes out, only for an abbreviated "hello" before the clouds crowd back around it.


If there are any Tarentel, Brian Eno, or Eluvium records in your sling, this is your new baby. - Indieworkshop.com

We dreamt the world had ended in progress - the collapsing hearts of the workforce pushing towards an endless oblivion, humming to the silence of a new age passing. Without questions, we find no answers. Without answers, the questions become a still life we acknowledge in presence yet can never address. Math, logic, reason - truth, for that matter - become obsolete without answers. A sentence, a fragment of thought, a prolonged clarity discovered, all to which we continue to reach at the questions in hope of bridging with answers. We each share this dream, recognized or ignored, as we fold into bed night after night.

In everything presented here, One Umbrella provide glimpses at questions without answers. These short soundscapes penetrate consciousness and affect the listener with a profound sadness that cannot be extinguished. Through drone, improvisation and found sound, these songs are composed and presented as vibrant, open-ended collages of the everyday.

“ITXITXX” could be the ambient hum of every streetlight on the block, or the wavering rattle of a rooftop air conditioner. Be it organic or synthetic, the line is blurred enough to create a loss of time and place, giving in to a steady undercurrent of being. “OIOI” continues this feeling, immersing the listener in a throbbing rhythm, giant sheets of sound waving in the stale night air.

An overcharged busyness on “Xestyl” scatters concentration, bearing a nervous air of unpredictable direction and crackling paranoia. Here the drone is buried by the heavy, unforgiving buzz and detracts from the album briefly. The emergence of true instrumentation in the form of a beautiful piano interlude, the somber and detached “8trs” highlights a gray midday lull in activity. At their most gentle, One Umbrella best capture the scope of sound they have aimed to achieve in the course of this one brief piece. “UHM” displays traced pieces of sparkling piano notes, walking quickly into “MHU” (the same segment played backwards), and carrying even quicker into “Srt8," which recreates the same melody with the reversed notes of “8trs.” The gently humming “Eintrocinc” ties the best efforts of this album altogether, as an ebow drags the melody away from the ambience, providing a hushed track of hauntingly remorseful confession.

Within a mere 24 minutes, Solve provides more questions than answers. As One Umbrella provide enough to ponder over on this EP, one thinks that perhaps, some things are better left unsolved. - 30music.com