Mick Strauss In The Dark

Mick Straussbrings together two EPs on vinyl: In the dark (2024) and Southern Wave Night Birds (2023). An itinerant soul in his forties, Strauss has always wandered far and wide, his curiosity piqued by different encounters and cultures. It was one of these journeys that shaped the sound and stories of his first album, Southern Wave - a six-month journey to the heart of the United States, his motherland. In 2023, he revisited 6 tracks from this album in acoustic versions (guitar, piano, violin, cello, double bass, drums) on the Southern Wave Night Birds EP. In 2024, between his collaborations with Astéréotypie (a band he writes and plays bass for) and his sound creations for circus and dance theater, Arthur B. Gillette has put his Mick Strauss suit back on and is releasing In the dark, a new five-track EP, accompanied by 5 tracks from Southern Wave Night Birds on B side. In the dark is a collection of strange-folk-DIY songs crafted in an attic in Brittany. In the Dark evolves towards the shores of divergent folk, at once romantic, tough and funny. This time, Mick Strauss putshis voice and stories at the heart of the songs. Artifices are reduced and, in their place, we find a stupefyingly rudimentary string section with warm timbres. Mick Strauss reminds us section with warm timbres. Mick Strauss reminds us not only of Lou Reed, but also of Jonathan Richman,Neil Young, Skip Spence, Bill Callahan and even reminiscences of a song Dolly Partonor Lucio Battistimight have written.