L'Altra

Based in Chicago, L'Altra originally included bassist Ken Dyber, drummer Eben English (also in Del Rey), and vocalists Joe Costa (also on guitar) and Lindsay Anderson (also on keyboards). The three-song EP L'Altra (Aesthetics, 1999) introduced a sublimely elegant fusion of pop, jazz and classical music. The album Music Of A Sinking Occasion (Aesthetics, 2000) collecs ten madrigals adorned with small chamber arrangements (provided by both jazz and rock musicians of Chicago, notably cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm and trumpeter Rob Mazurek) and delivered with tender grace. The instrumental overture of Music Of A Sinking Occasion promises more than chamber-pop: aggressive drumming, soulful trumpet melodies, stark piano notes, and warm cello counteropint. But the rest of the album is performed at a funeral pace, starting with the spartan violin-tinged Little Chair, which debuts the duo's ecstatic hippie-esque vocal harmonies; and continuing with the slocore elegy Slow As Cake that drowns in psychedelic trance; and peaking with the shy beat, gothic organ and Pink Floyd-ian chant of Motorme, sung only by Costa. The sweet martial lullaby Room Becomes Thick is the poppier song; and Lips Move On Top Of Quiet is a languid country lament that recalls the Cowboy Junkies. The brief Handwashing For Good Health is slightly more upbeat, halfway between Renaissance dance and Simon & Garfunkel. jazzy flute-driven coda of Say Wrong The overall effect is to transpose atmospheric/intellettual pop music to another temporal dimension, as if Tortoise played Low's songs with arrangements by VanDyke Parks.

In The Afternoon (Aesthetics, 2002) is equally engaging. Lush and oneiric soundscapes accompany the dual vocal harmonies in Soft Connection (jangling guitars, new-age piano), Traffic (soaring organ), Moth in Rain (distorted electronica). Black Arrow tries too hard to conform to the pop format but the jazzy intermezzo and the dreamy coda push it into uncharted territory. Afternoon Music is a waltzing ballad for country crooners. The standout is instead the more idiosyncratic Certainty, which morphs from catatonic to stately. Intricate beats appear in Ways Out and Broken Mouths but are pretty much wasted. The (too brief) romantic instrumental closer, Goodbye Music, could easily be the centerpiece of a more ambitious piece of music.

Different Days (Hefty, 2005), despite having lost both Kyber and English, is another parade of lullabies for themes of alienation and atmospheres of decadent spleen (Sleepless Night, So Surprise), but the music is far less enticing than on previous outings.

They seem to disband after the EP Bring On Happiness (Hefty, 2005). Lindsay Anderson released the solo album If (Minty Fresh, 2007) and Joe Costa released Lighter Subjects (2008), credited to Costa Music. Instead they reunited for Telepathic (Acuarela, 2011). The album opens with the poignant and bombastic instrumental Telepathic and boasts the folk-rock ditty When the Ship Sinks Make It Sing and the stately Pink Floyd-ian aria Winter Loves Summer Sun. This Bruise harks back to the dreamy slocore of the early days.