CD/DVD Releases: Echo Us Release "Nightlight", New Album Out 2014

Winner of "Best Eclectic" at the 2013 Independent Music Awards, Ethan Matthew's Pacific NW-based Echo Us holds aim with live acoustic set and new video single.

Echo Us' upcoming album, 2:12, À Priori Memoriaé is on its way in 2014, and the video for the first single "Nightlight" is now available for viewing on Youtube and soon other streaming websites [which may now be the case - hibernating news ed.].

"Nightlight" is a very special song within the Echo Us catalog with vocalists Ethan and Henta morphing their interlocking vocals amidst a background of classical harp, strings and oboe. The "Nightlight" video also features the photo animation work of Ethan, whose animated Echo Us short "The Mirror In The Window" was released to great success in 2011.

The new album also features Raelyn Olson (harp), Chris Smith (Flute), Christina Fitzgerald (Oboe), and as mentioned, the vocals of GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Henta.

"The album sounds like it was recorded live in the studio or in many cases - a concert hall, [Ethan says]. It has this very unbridled energy, and even taking sections where it was just me and a record button, it has that spark like a large ensemble...this kind of surprised me, and has been a big inspiration for getting back to gigging"

[Ethan and Raelyn played live acoustic sets of Echo Us material last fall and into 2014, including an in-store appearance at Music Millennium on November 9th - you can find any other upcoming live dates at the band's website -ed.]

In later news, Ethan added that a mini-documentary about 2:12, À Priori Memoriaé was released in January.

À Priori Memoriaé firmly fuses Echo Us' ambient music core with live classical musicians. "It was a very organic process" says Ethan. "The entire recording sounds like a live performance. It is quite possibly the most innovative work in the Echo Us catalog, and was put together in such a way as to make one feel a continuous stream of images and emotion, based off of only a few melodic fragments- In that way, it's a classical composition, contrapuntal, with many melodic inversions and alterations creating its flow. The album barely features anything resembling a drum kit, and that was intentional."

Echo Us will announce release plans for the new album in due time, and continue their acoustic performances.