Le Diamant Brut: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & Balmorhea

Photo by Megan Carney from MySpace

What’s the Deal: They’re a really potent and moving orchestral acoustic troupe from Austin who are great about filling the city air with overwhelming atmospheric sounds. They released their third full-length, All is Wild, All is Silent, on Western Vinyl Records (home to J. Tillman, Dirty Projectors and many more) in March, and it’s a wonder why the gorgeous sounds of this record haven’t consumed the city. The rise and fall of strings, acoustic guitars, clashing symbols and the occasional haunting echoey vocal make this one of the more powerful Austin music outfits.

With a piano, banjo, guitars, violin, cello, double bass and more, this quintet have all the means to pull Austin’s ears away from Red River for a time and toward classical-friendly concert halls. “Coahuila” begins with the soft twinkle and chime of acoustic guitar chords, which soon builds to include the ebb and flow of symbols and the rising hum and chirp of the strings and ends with you falling in love with the band.

Something Interesting: If you’re curious or already a fan, unfortunately, you won’t be able to catch them in town until at least July. They’re engaged on a European tour, and after that they do some U.S. dates with Tiny Vipers.

Other Tracks Worth Checking Out: “Harm and Boon” and “Truth”

Balmorhea Official
Balmorhea MySpace