Pterodactyl Plains
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"2010 - Pterodactyl Plains - Raven - Review - Chronique d'un duo qui expérimente tout en séduisant"

aintenant que vous connaissez Jessica Kilroy (premier album Before Dawn en écoute et choniqué ici) , le temps est venu de parler du projet musical qu'elle a concocté en compagnie de Kier Atherton (producteur et réalisateur) nommé Pterodactyl Plains. Leur premier album Raven, sorti en mars 2010, est un ovni construit pour nous emmener dans un trip musical hypnotisant et étrange. Leur musique est un mélange improbable de folk et d'éléments électro/pop (on se rapproche clairement du style folktronica), le tout saupoudré de psychédélisme à la fois euphorisant et apaisant. Cette mixture marche prodigieusement bien essentiellement grâce aux vocalises ensorcelantes d'une grande limpidité et beauté de Jessica Kilory délicatement posées sur des compositions audacieuses mais accessibles.

Horizon ouvre une porte sensuelle (Jessica) et élégante (les arrangements de cordes) sur l'album. Une piste troublante et hypnotique qui fait place au parfum délicat, langoureux et féminin de Stay Awhile. L'électrique et vaudou Color semble être un prolongement subtil du morceau Horizon. Changement de cap complet avec l'électro pop minimaliste Clean qui s'avère un single diablement efficace. Une merveille. Right Here s'aventure vers des chemins plus sombres avec son instrumental electrico-celtique funèbre. Ce morceau est magnifique. Le faussement techno Red Umbrella plonge l'auditeur dans une forme de transe enivrante. Solace allie douceur et expérimentation, ce qui en fait l'une des pistes les plus belles et créatives de l'album. Magique. Straitjacket renoue avec l'idée d'être un morceau pop entêtant. C'est réussi. Versant dans une sorte de trip hop/soul aux contours soyeux, le délectable Carry Your Soul séduit sans effort. Strangers expérimente diverses sonorités et vocalises pour donner un très beau morceau troublant à l'ambiance mystique. Horizon (2) clôture l'opus un peu de la même façon qu'il a commencé, à quelques nuances (percussions) près.

Un projet musical aussi réussi qu'envoûtant. Un album expérimental mais à la portée de tout un chacun. Une belle découverte de 2010.

Note Finale : 15/20 - With Music In My Mind


"NICKELL’S BAG"

And then there’s the case of Pterodactyl Plains, a folk-meets-electronica act that’s pretty much in a class of its own – but fits the trend still, since it’s a duo.
Featuring singer/guitarist Jessica Kilroy and multi-instrumentalist Kier Atherton, Pterodactyl Plains celebrates the release of its debut album in a performance at the Palace Lounge this Saturday, Feb. 20.
You’ve probably not heard Pterodactyl Plains or its album before. Kilroy herself hadn’t received a copy of the record yet, as of last Tuesday.
But in a strange Internet-age twist, they’re already building an avid fan-base … in former Soviet-bloc countries.
“It’s hilarious and baffling,” said Kilroy.
A few weeks ago, Atherton posted a single copy of the album on a private file-sharing network on the Internet. As close as he can tell, someone downloaded it and began reposting it on other file-sharing networks. Suddenly, it was garnering reviews on music blogs in Hungary, Russia and elsewhere.
The translations of those reviews have been a source of entertainment unto themselves: On one Hungarian-language blog called “I Wanna Rock You Baby!,” the reviewer referred to Pterodactyl Plains as “breast biting folk.” Other reviews have been more clearly flattering: One commenter at Last.fm wrote, “If heaven were a music, it’d sound like this.”
The album represents a new direction for Kilroy, who has already built a reputation as an up-and-coming folk and bluegrass singer (she won first prize at the Yonder Mountain String Band’s Northwest String Summit in 2008).
“I was sick of folk music and wanted to do something different for a while,” said Kilroy. “Kier gave me a bunch of cool instrumental stuff mixed with electronica that he had recorded, and while I was touring I would think up things to sing with it.”
The result is a haunting, eleven-track album that blends Kilroy’s angelic voice – often in overdubbed self-harmony – with an ever-shifting array of instruments and electronic sounds. The percussion on one track is provided by the sound of tapping on metal bowls filled with water. Elsewhere, lo-fi drum-machine beats peck incessantly below Kilroy’s vocals. “Stay Awhile” builds to a powerful climax complete with cello wails and driving piano; yet even there, Kilroy remains placid, her dreamy voice soaring above the foggy instrumental stew.
It’s a remarkable record, falling loosely in the line of artists such as Imogen Heap, the Notwist, and Bat for Lashes.
Kilroy and Atherton will soon head out for a three-month tour of Europe, where they hope to connect with some of their new fans; but in the meantime, you can hear them at the Palace this Saturday, Feb. 20, where they’ll officially release “Raven.”
Incidentally, I hear that the show will also feature a CD release by another duo, Modality (Clark Grant and Jay Bruns). Alas, I didn’t get any info from them, but it only makes cosmic sense that there’d be two CDs released by two local duos this week.
Double your pleasure! - Missoulian


"Pterodactyl Plains - Raven (USA 2009)"

Q: Where exactly are you from?
A: We are from a small town Trego in Montana, just south of Canada and West of Glacier Park.
Q: Who involved? Who played what?
A: Pterodactyl Plains is Jessica Kilroy and Kier Atherton with guests Bethany Joyce on cello and Chance Cole on drums
Q: How recorded?
A: The album was recorded at friends homes and our parents house during the holidays. We recorded on a Macbook Pro with Motu hardware and Digital Performer. The album was all recorded with Art tube preamps and primarily with a Blue Bluebird and EV RE-20 microphone.
Q: When recorded?
A:. Recorded in 2009. Originally this was going to be Jessica Kilroy's new album, but it became so much of a departure from her previous material that we decided it should be its own project.
Q: Any more releases?
A: This is our first album, but Jessica Kilroy has released two self-released solo albums and Kier Atherton has produced and performed with Pillar Saints and Travis Sehorn.
Q: How'd you "label" your music?
A: We still identify our music as folk, because we intend for the songs to all be able to exist comfortably as acoustic music on the strength of their lyrics and melody. We like to experiment with sound and rhythm too though which I guess would make us electro acoustic, or whatever the current label is for that type of music.
Q: Influences?
A: We are influenced as much by our environment as the music we listen to, but some of Kier's favorite music that sets a standard we would like to attain includes Califone, Clann Zu, The National, and Exuma.
Q: Website, Myspace?
A:
http://pterodactylplains.com/News.html
http://www.myspace.com/pterodactylplains
(info by Kier Atherton via email)

Outstanding beautiful female vocals over electronic soundscapes and rhythms mixed with a more acoustic backing. A remarkable strong album that could best be described as experimental folk.

Check out their European concert dates in April and May at their Myspace site (dates in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK)!

Favourite tracks: Straitjacket and Right Here and Strangers - homemade lofi psych


"Pterodactyl Plains – Raven. 6.5/10."

Raven is the new album from the American duo Pterodactyl Plains. Made up of, Jessica Kilroy and Kier Atherton. The album takes you on a magical journey through space, taking you to the depths of all eleven tracks. Each track boasts a combination of bright and dark sounds littered with the most bizarre beats and noises that can only ignite your imagination. The heavenly vocals from Jessica Kilroy supplement the album beautifully, and bring you back down to earth from what seems like a slightly alien album. At certain intervals in the album I struggle to find the necessity in the odd beats and corrupt noises. However for the majority of the album it works, I’m not entirely sure how, but it does.
‘Solace’ being the stand out track of the album is quite simply some kind of magic trick. The last two minutes of the track in particular being stunningly beautiful. The acoustic guitar plays an integral part in this song pulling the strings, bringing the sounds together. Another, nestled in among all the noise, is ‘Stay a While’, a slightly more conventional song, bursting in with piano and bass rolling into the exciting harmonies that feature so frequently throughout the album.
Opener Horizon is a soothing way to be introduced to the album and Horizon II, the penultimate track, plays a similar role at the other end of the album. It’s certainly an experimental record, and at various stages throughout it works well. At times you can’t help but question the logic behind some of the sounds introduced but they’re most definitely a band willing to take risks, so look out for these guys in the near future! - Sucking Lemons


"Listen"

Pterodactyl Plains
RAVEN
***1/2
On Now that only marketers are “selling” music to radio stations these days, a truly wonderful thing has happened: the artistic range of released albums is spreading to the edge of the creative universe, uninhibited by the concerns responsible for tricking you into seeing the douchebag haircuts of Hedley on buses. But artists now have the freedom to follow their hearts and take time with a motif. So a pretty and compelling experimental folk album like this, which in the old days might’ve been seen as “weird,” can be appreciated for its real value, which is aesthetic. It’s a soothing collection of songs with a little electronica and very lovely voices — Jessica Kilroy and Kier Atherton, who does a breathy Leonard Cohen. We’ve come around to an earlier age! Another reason to love the Great Recession.
Which is not to say, as a collection, Raven doesn’t contain snappier songs like “Clean” or the space-tribal “Red Umbrella,” which might fit on the FM dial. But it honestly didn’t need them, as the feeling of isolation is what makes it so delightfully alien. - SEE Magazine


Discography

Pterodactyl Plains: Raven (2010)

Photos

Bio

Pterodactyl Plains is the most recent export from Trego, Montana (once the Christmas tree capital of the world, now a logging bust town riding a real estate boom into the 21st century).

Jessica Kilroy, the premier native folk voice from the region, has toured across the country performing original music in bars, coffee shops, and festivals since 2007. Eventually disillusioned by broken promises and bad contracts, Kilroy continued struggling to make a career of music when her hard earned dreams of becoming a smokejumper ended abruptly due to a severe injury while rock climbing.

Spending much of her time in airports and greyhound stations and driving car after car into the ground, Kilroy found inspiration in rhythmic loops and songs from an old friend, Kier Atherton, that she kept on a battered cd in her discman for months on end. Quickly outgrowing the narrow traditions of folk and bluegrass songwriting she found a welcome escape in the experimental soundscapes and began writing and arranging to them.

Kier Atherton played keyboards in bands and produced folk and rock albums for years, but could never sustain any of the projects without having to spend every summer working a trail crew job back in the Kootenai National Forest to pay his bills...watching the bands dissolve again and again.

Kilroy and Atherton soon put both their careers on hold, their lives on credit cards, and retreated to their hometown of Trego, MT to record an album with none of the boundaries of their past projects. With no expectations upon its release in the cold vacuum of winter, they were shocked to see the album instantly go blog surfing after a single upload to what.cd, quickly filling their coffers with press they often had to use google to translate into English.

Wasting no time, they embarked on a three month/seven country tour of Europe to promote the new album, and then returned to the East Coast to perform in NYC and their first festival in Maryland. While away they reached #1 on KBGA College Radio and came home to discover audiences singing along with their songs. They added drummer Chance Cole to their live lineup, an old friend with roots in rodeos and an injured back keeping him from his Olympic dreams of making the U.S. Taekwondo team.

Armed with new songs from the road their homecoming was quickly interrupted by more recording, and they've already scheduled a cd release and European tour for Spring 2011.

“The mysterious magic of the album with each song more deeply immerses you in the depths of its profound peace, freeing from reality.”

Funky Souls (Russia)

This Montana-based duo makes dreamy, rustic songs steeped in eerie Americana.

NPR: Second Stage from All Songs Considered Podcast

“pretty and compelling experimental folk album”
“space-tribal”
“delightfully alien”

See Magazine Review (Edmonton, Canada)

“The album takes you on a magical journey through space”
“Each track boasts a combination of bright and dark sounds littered with the most bizarre beats and noises that can only ignite your imagination.”
“The heavenly vocals from Jessica Kilroy supplement the album beautifully”
“ ‘Solace’ being the stand out track of the album is quite simply some kind of magic trick”

Sucking Lemons (UK)

“It’s a remarkable record, falling loosely in the line of artists such as Imogen Heap, the Notwist, and Bat For Lashes.”

Missoulian (Missoula, MT)

“deep trickling rainbow magic”
“Jessica Kilroy and Kier Atherton vocals always fit your
head.”
“breast biting folk”
“often with background electronic
beautifying the undulating, swirling folk rituals.”

I wanna rock you baby! (Hungary)

“If heaven were a music it’d sound like this.”

last.fm (Brazil)

“Your soothing tunes have become a necessity,
something to help us cope with this unusual planet earth.”

Myspace (Los Angeles, US)

“The entire value of the album is in its unity. Really must listen to all the disk.”

Listen, See, Feel (France)

“Very interesting music, it reminds me heavily of Holly Miranda and Soap & Skin. Lots of beats, breaks and general good feelings
throughout this release. Sweet female vocals over top of electronica can never fail in my books.”

Bolachas Gratis (Portugal)

“Very beautiful female vocals, slow and full of subtle conflict and building anxiousness to hear where the song will take you. Fantastic live show. If you like Brightblack Morning Light, Laura Gibson, and just plain awesome grooves, dig this album.”

KGBA- Missoula College Radio Playlist

“Bewitching vocals of great clarity and beauty of Jessica Kilroy delicately placed on bold but accessible compositions.”

With Music on My Mind (Belgium)

“Outstanding beautiful female vocals over electronic soundscapes and rhythms mixed with a more acoustic backing. A remarkably strong album that could best be described as experimental folk.”

homemade lofi psych blogspot