When most people think of post-rock they think of elongated instrumentals that consist of long periods where nothing much happens except maybe a couple of drawn-out and heavily effected notes on a guitar, then maybe after five minutes or so everything might erupt into a cacophony of crashing cymbals and soaring guitars which end with a grand and spectacular finale. Words like "glacial", "towering" and "sonic cathedral" are the default settings for reviews of such material. Generally most music fans would rather they just cut to the chase, or better still, play a proper bloody tune. If you're a doubter of post-rock as a decent, credible and interesting genre then Italians Elara are here to persuade you otherwise.
OK so a title like 'Soundtrack For A Quiet Place' and an EP that begins with a song called 'Me and You Under the Aurora Borealis' might appear to be asking for trouble, but stick with it. It is a long instrumental piece but the grandeur is definitely there and while there are quiet moments they help create a forceful atmosphere. In essence they've stripped away some of the boring parts and left the impressive "towering" and "glacial" parts in. 'We Are Infinite' cuts this down even further, mixing in classical sounds and resulting in an epic worthy of any film score, the same could be said about final track 'Seljalandsfoss' which is darker in nature but no less majestic. We can't make promises, but if you're not a post-rock fan, it could be worth checking out Elara, you might be surprised.
Elara's website
Stream or buy the EP
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