It's an instrumental album featuring classical instrumentation, it features gorgeous packaging, and most of the song titles are either in French or chock full of commas. Yes, it's yet another side project release from the folks that brought you Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Set Fire to Flames and the Silver Mt. Zion Hoonja-Doonja Ice Cream Symposium. The fact that there's a Motherfucker (as in Jackie-O) along for the ride doesn't change the overriding MO of the primary players. Aurora is gorgeous, cinematic stuff, dominated by cello and eccentric percussive instruments like clevises and rototom shells. And, unsurprisingly, the packaging is equally gorgeous-- an embossed gatefold CD sleeve complete with black disc envelope and postcard, as well as slightly skewed typeface setting.
Folks not yet inured to this collective's bombast and grandeur might be surprised by how gentle and serene these tracks are. "Histories Repeating..." lists in a foggy meditative fashion for nearly 17 minutes, while the comparatively pop-length "Why She Swallows..." twinkles and trembles. When there's a threat of the folks rocking out in a hamfisted fashion (as on the very first track, "Quelques Mots Pleins D'ombre"), Esmerine opts to err on the demure side of aggression. Folks unfamiliar with all things godsped, but with a predilection for groups like Rachels and the Dirty Three, might also want to give this a try.
For those that got over the gorgeous instrumentation and the importance of each telegraphed loud-soft shift and the interminable song titles sometime after Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada, this disc will seem relentlessly polite and tasteful. More importantly, Aurora won't sound much different than anything this group-- together or apart-- has already produced. That's not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that, for all intents and purposes, it's the same thing.
